Communities and Local Government is facing fines of up to £230m for financial irregularities in regeneration projects, the Conservative local government spokesman, Eric Pickles, has claimed. The CLG has already been fined some £20m for irregularities in delivering regeneration programmes funded by the European Commission, but now faces further fines for problems with the European Rural Development Fund and Interreg programmes in the North East and North West. The CLG said it was confident it could avoid the fines and satisfy the commission's concerns.
