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Those who have wondered what the point of the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit is are not alone, it seems.

In a debate last week, the House of Lords pondered the very same question, leading one peer to conclude that, as creator of the over-complicated unit, "the government will be able to congratulate itself on producing an indissoluble union between gobbledy and gook".

Surely, questioned Lord Peyton of Yeovil, a unit which has seven divisions and 14 sub-divisions would merely "exacerbate problems, not solve them".


His opening query had been to find out what "is the purpose and annual cost of the neighbourhood renewal unit, and how many committees have been generated by it?"

Supporters of the unit, which was established in April 2001 to help improve the country's 88 most deprived areas, will be pleased to learn that Lord Rooker provided a robust defence.

"I freely admit and accept that access to various streams of funding to localities is complicated for people to understand. It can appear like a bowl of spaghetti," he said.

He did, however, add that moves were afoot to sort out the confusion.