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Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his written reply dated 14 February, Official Report, column 222, concerning the amount of poll tax payable in 1990-91 per adult for each region, and so on, whether he will provide in each case an estimate of the numbers of single-adult households chargeable to poll tax together with the number of those with children.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 26 February 1990] : The available information is shown in the table. This is based on data taken from the family expenditure survey and shows the estimated number of single-adult households with and without children in each region.
---------------------------------------------------------
Northern |460 |40 |500
Yorkshire and Humberside |670 |80 |750
North West |800 |110 |910
East Midlands |440 |40 |490
West Midlands |580 |70 |650
East Anglia |230 |20 |250
Greater London |950 |90 |1,040
Remainder of South East |1,140 |120 |1,260
South West |500 |50 |550
|-------|-------|-------
Total England |5,770 |620 |6,400
Numbers are in thousands and may not add due to
rounding.
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the assumptions and the basis of calculation used in his reply to the hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling on 12 February, Official Report, column 58, that under the community charge system about 15 times as much will be contributed to the cost of local government by the top 10 per cent. of households by income compared with the poorest 10 per cent.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 22 February 1990] : Using a sample of households grouped into deciles of gross income, the calculations involved the following stages :
(i) Calculate the amount of local spending funded by national taxation as a multiple of income from domestic rates (less rebates). (ii) Taking the figure produced by (i), calculate the amount of national taxation accounted for by centrally funded contributions to local taxation.
(iii) Calculate the amount produced by (ii) as a proportion of total national taxation.
(iv) Assuming that the proportion at (iii) applied equally to all households, estimate the amount of national taxation paid as a contribution to local authority spending by the top and bottom deciles of households by income.
Mr. Oppenheim : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many meetings his Department has had with, and how many letters it has received from, Derbyshire county council in connection with the community charge within the past year.
Mr. Chope : The Department has had no meetings with, but has received nine letters from, Derbyshire county council in connection with the community charge within the past year.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his written reply dated 14 February, Official Report, column 222 , concerning the amount of poll tax payable in 1990-91 per adult for each region, what assumption has been made about the per adult contribution made by central Government in deciding the proposed increase in the local tax/ratepayer's contribution to local expenditure in Humberside ; and whether he will publish in the Official Report the per adult figures for the central Government contribution in each case, together with figures showing that contribution as a percentage of the local
tax/ratepayer's contribution.
Mr. Chope : The Government have not proposed a specific increase in local contribution to expenditure in Humberside. The Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) sets out the basis of distribution of revenue support grant for 1990-91. The Revenue Support Grant Transition Report (England) sets out the adjustments to that basis of distribution and the Special Grant Report specifies two special grants for 1990-91. The distribution of business rates will be in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1988. The table shows the aggregate of these amounts (known as "external support") for Humberside authorities as amounts per adult and as percentages of the average assumed personal community charge or 1989-90 rate bill per adult :
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External support for Humberside
|External support |External support as
|per adult |percentage of rate/chargepayer
|£ |contribution
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Underlying 1990-91 assumed
community charge with safety net |595 |224.4
Underlying 1989-90 average
rate bill per adult |583 |241.0
Underlying assumed long run
community charge |535 |164.9
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if his Department has commissioned any research on the effects of the poll tax or community charge on the provision of bed-and-breakfast accommodation.
Mr. Chope : No such research has been commissioned. Any person solely or mainly resident in a building, whatever its use, will be subject to the personal community charge. Bed-and-breakfast accommodation offered in someone's own home which is available for fewer than 100 days in a year will not be subject to business rates.
Mr. Hanley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the amount of the block grant given to each London borough, per head of population in 1988-89, 1989-90 and the forecast for 1990-91.
Mr. Chope : The information for 1988-89 and 1989-90 is as follows. Comparable information for 1990-91 is not available for individual authorities because of changes to the grant system.
Block grant per head of population-London
boroughs
|1988-89|1989-90
|(£) |(£)
-----------------------------------------------
City of London |0 |0
Camden |0 |0
Greenwich |207 |223
Hackney |364 |421
Hammersmith and Fulham |316 |345
Islington |281 |302
Kensington and Chelsea |232 |283
Lambeth |346 |377
Lewisham |277 |308
Southwark |293 |347
Tower Hamlets |361 |457
Wandsworth |265 |264
Westminster |0 |0
Barking and Dagenham |190 |213
Barnet |118 |100
Bexley |233 |235
Brent |270 |320
Bromley |176 |159
Croydon |137 |135
Ealing |224 |228
Enfield |183 |183
Haringey |413 |441
Harrow |198 |203
Havering |190 |190
Hillingdon |18 |11
Hounslow |104 |83
Kingston upon Thames |129 |115
Merton |209 |207
Newham |464 |521
Redbridge |233 |240
Richmond upon Thames |66 |38
Sutton |157 |154
Waltham Forest |364 |370
Note:
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
mid-year estimates of
total population have been used to derive per
capita values.
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Shropshire County Council
Mr. Gill : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the total number of employees of Shropshire county council for each of the past five years.
Mr. Chope : The information is as follows :
|c|Shropshire County Council: Staffing levels at
June|c|
|c|(excluding Police<1>)|c|
|Full-time|Part-time|Total
--------------------------------------------------
1985 |7,200 |6,833 |14,033
1986 |7,190 |7,185 |14,375
1987 |7,215 |7,677 |14,892
1988 |7,336 |7,438 |14,774
1989 |7,506 |7,719 |15,225
<1> Police functions are
carried out by the West
Mercia Police Authority.
Environmental Protection
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what decisions have been taken by the Council of Ministers on the 1989-92 STEP framework programme initiative on environmental protection and the 1989-92 EPOCH framework programme on climatology and natural hazards.
Mr. Trippier : The Council of Ministers adopted the STEP (science and technology for environmental protection) and EPOCH (European programme on climatology and natural hazards) on 20 November 1989. The programmes will run for four years from the date of adoption at a cost of 75 million European currency units (mecu) and 40 mecu, respectively.
Empty Properties
Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is his estimate of the number of empty residential properties in the private sector ; and what is his estimate of the percentage that this represents of the total number of residential properties in the private sector ;
(2) what is his estimate of the number of properties which are empty in each of the categories of (a) local authority housing, (b) housing association housing and (c) Government Department housing ; and what is his estimate of the percentage that this represents of the total number of properties in each such group ; (3) what is his estimate of the number of vacant assured tenancies in the private sector (a) now, (b) in February 1989 and (c) in February 1988 ;
(4) what is his estimate of the number of vacant tenancies in the private sector by region of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Michael Spicer : The available information for April 1989 is in the table. Figures are for England, except in the case of Government Departments, which cover Great Britain.
|Vacant dwellings|As a percentage
|(thousands) | of stock
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
<1> Local authority |100.7 |2.4
<2> Housing association |21.8 |4.2
<3> Other public sector |35.1 |18.1
<4> Private |589.0 |4.1
<1> Derived from local authorities housing
investment programme returns for April 1989.
Includes dwellings which are closed or have been
acquired for demolition, and dwellings on
overspill estates.
<2> Derived from housing association returns to
the Housing Corporation for March 1989. Includes 13,500
dwellings, mainly purchased vacant from the private sector,
which require rehabilitation work before suitable for occupation.
<3> 1988-89 figures reported by central Government Departments
to the Treasury and includes dwellings owned by local health
authorities. Many are vacant because of operational requirements,
notably those owned by the Ministry of Defence, and others have
been acquired for demolition eg by the Department of Transport.
The Government are encouraging the sale of housing which is surplus
to requirements and many of those that are vacant are in the
process of disposal.
<4> Includes both rented and owner occupied dwellings. Local authorities
provide figures in their housing investment programme returns, but
because of the difficulty of obtaining up-to-date information on
private sector vacancies, the estimates are likely to be less
reliable than other information provided. The Department has no
estimates of the number of vacant tenancies in the private sector
or of vacant assured tenancies in the private sector. For
information about Wales and Scotland I refer the hon. Member to my
right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales and to my
Right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Mr. McCrindle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if there are any plans to introduce grants for housing associations and local authorities to bring unoccupied houses into use ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 23 February 1990] : Housing association grant and housing revenue account subsidy to local housing authorities are already available for a variety of activities which may bring unoccupied houses into use. Allocations of capital resources to associations and authorities also take account of the need for this work. The primary aim of the £250 million homelessness initiative announced last November was to bring empty housing association and local authority dwellings back into use.
Air Pollution
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate has been made by his Department of the number of deaths and the number of work days lost through air pollution for each year since 1980, together with the estimated cost of health care.
Mr. Trippier : The Department has made no such estimate. The term "air pollution" is not sufficiently precise to be attributable as a cause of death or illness, and it is therefore doubtful whether the information exists on which such estimates could be based.
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what have been the annual changes in the emissions of sulphur dioxide from fossil fuel combustion in the United Kingdom from 1975 to 1989 ; and if he will give the projections for the years to 1995 ; (2) what have been the total annual reductions in the emissions of sulphur dioxide in the United Kingdom from 1975 to 1989 ; and if he will give the projections for the years to 1995 ;
(3) what projections he has concerning the emissions of nitrous oxides from the United Kingdom ; and what plans he has for their reduction.
Mr. Trippier : Figures for the years 1975 to 1987 are given in chapter 2 of the "Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics", copies of which are held
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in the Library of the House. Figures for 1988 will be contained in the 12th edition, which will be published shortly. Figures for 1989 are not yet available.The European Community large combustion plants directive commits us to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide from existing combustion plants over 50 MW by 60 per cent. by 2003, and of nitrogen oxides by 30 per cent. by 1998, based on 1980 levels in each case, with stringent emissions standards for new plants. The agreement on motor vehicles reached with our European partners in June 1989 is expected to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by about 80 per cent. from each new car after 1992. We are in the process of examining the implications of these commitments with Warren Spring laboratory, which maintains the national emissions inventory for the Department.
Uniform Business Rate
Mr. John Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what will be the impact of the uniform business rate and the non-domestic revaluation on properties in the rural development areas (a) overall and (b) by type of property.
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Mr. Chope : The information requested is not readily available. I shall write to my hon. Friend.
Local Government, Essex
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will give details of the expenditure of Chelmsford borough council and Essex county council in each year since 1983-84 in (a) cash terms, (b) constant price terms ; and (c) cash terms per head of population ; and if he will indicate the percentage increase in each year ;
(2) if he will publish details of the direct total grants made to Chelmsford borough council and Essex county council in (a) cash terms, (b) constant price terms and (c) cash terms per head of population in every year since 1983-84.
Mr. Chope : The information is as follows :
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|c|Net Current Expenditure|c|
|Cash Terms |Percentage change |Constant Price terms |Percentage change |Cash terms Per head<2>
|1989-90 prices
|£ million |£ million<1> |£
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chelmsford BC
1983-84 |3.205 |4.428 |22
1984-85 |3.266 |1.9 |4.299 |-2.9 |22
1985-86 |4.241 |29.9 |5.298 |23.2 |29
1986-87 |4.243 |0.0 |5.128 |-3.2 |28
1987-88 |5.621 |32.5 |6.451 |25.8 |37
1988-89 |5.699 |1.4 |6.098 |-5.5 |38
1989-90<3> |7.972 |39.9 |7.972 |30.7 |53
Essex CC
1983-84 |464.619 |641.964 |311
1984-85 |491.856 |5.9 |647.430 |0.9 |329
1985-86 |521.132 |6.0 |650.998 |0.6 |346
1986-87 |577.315 |10.8 |697.685 |7.2 |382
1987-88 |641.207 |11.1 |735.849 |5.5 |421
1988-89 |698.902 |9.0 |747.825 |1.6 |457
1989-90<3> |743.491 |6.4 |743.491 |-0.6 |486
<1> Using GDP Deflator to convert cash values to
constant prices.
<2> Using Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
mid-year estimates of total population to calculate
per capita values.
<3> Budget estimates.
|c|Direct revenue grants<1>|c|
|Cash terms |Constant price terms
|-1989-90 prices<2> |of population<3>
|£ million |£ million |£
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chelmsford BC
1983-84 |2.002 |2.766 |14
1984-85 |1.835 |2.415 |13
1985-86 |1.492 |1.864 |10
1986-87 |3.771 |4.557 |25
1987-88 |1.846 |2.118 |12
1988-89 |1.057 |1.131 |7
1989-90 |1.050 |1.050 |7
Essex CC
1983-84 |185.786 |256.701 |125
1984-85 |190.339 |250.543 |127
1985-86 |167.120 |208.766 |111
1986-87 |162.469 |196.344 |107
1987-88 |167.537 |192.265 |110
1988-89 |152.197 |162.851 |99
1989-90 |130.358 |130.358 |85
<1> Comprising Block Grant and Specific
and Supplementary grants.
<2> Using GDP Deflator to convert cash
values to constant prices.
<3> Using Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
mid-year estimates of total population to
calculate per capita values.
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give details of the figures for the total number of staff, both full time and part time, employed by Essex county council and Chelmsford borough council in each year since 1983-84.
Mr. Chope : The information is as follows :
|c|Staffing Levels at June|c| Year |Full-Time|Part-Time|Total -------------------------------------------------- Essex County Council 1983 |27,508 |23,966 |51,474 1984 |27,362 |24,811 |52,173 1985 |27,437 |25,472 |52,909 1986 |27,410 |27,229 |54,639 1987 |27,690 |28,060 |55,750 1988 |27,927 |29,411 |57,338 1989 |27,805 |29,861 |57,666 Chelmsford Borough Council 1983 |743 |125 |868 1984 |745 |121 |866 1985 |752 |124 |876 1986 |783 |106 |889 1987 |814 |95 |909 1988 |843 |95 |938 1989 |884 |146 |1,030
Satellite Dishes
Mr. Corbett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what consideration he has given to extending the Town and Country Planning General Development Order 1988 to require planning consent for the installation of any satellite antennae on the front elevations of properties ;
(2) what consideration he is giving to extending the Town and Country Planning General Development Order 1988 to include controls over the erection of satellite antennae on dwellinghouses or within their curtilage within conservation areas.
Mr. Moynihan : These issues will be included in the consultation paper which we shall shortly be issuing about planning controls on satellite antennae and other telecommunications development.
Local Government (Politically Restricted Posts)
Mr. David Davis : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has yet prepared the regulations under section 1(5) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.
Mr. David Hunt : The Department has today sent copies of draft regulations to the local authority associations and others for comment. I have arranged for a copy of the draft to be placed in the Library of the House.
The regulations will complete the provisions to ensure that local government officers who hold politically sensitive posts are subject to restrictions to ensure that
Column 186
they do not undertake public political activity which are broadly comparable to those to which senior civil servants have been subject for over a century.The Act already provides that from 1 May 1990 such local government officers will be disqualified from election as Members of the European Parliament, Members of Parliament and members of county, district and London borough councils. The regulations, when made, would ensure that a comparable range of restrictions apply to other forms of public political activity.
In general, the regulations follow the proposals in the Government's consultation paper, but changes have been made which will permit local authority officers to hold offices in political parties which are concerned solely with the internal management of the party (for example, as auditors), and which will make it clear that the restrictions do not apply in any way to the officers' official duties.
The draft regulations provide that the restrictions would apply, like the disqualifications, from 1 May 1990.
Caravan Sites Act 1968
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his replies to the hon. Member for Bradford, West of 19 February relating to the Caravan Sites Act 1968, if he will list the poor- performing local authorities to which he has written since issuing a directive to Hertfordshire county council.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 23 February 1990] : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to Avon, Hereford and Worcester and Surrey county councils.
Gipsies
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what numbers of gipsies residing in, or resorting to (a) Hertfordshire and (b) Surrey have been recorded in each of the last 10 years ; and what provision each authority has made, to date, over the last 10 years.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 23 February 1990] : According to local authority returns to the Department's biannual counts exercise (begun in 1980), the following numbers of gipsy caravans have been recorded in these two counties :
Column 185
Hertfordshire gipsy caravans
|Unauthorised |Authorised |Private |Total
|(local authority)|(authorised)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 1980 |112 |129 |12 |253
July 1980 |119 |128 |14 |261
January 1981 |107 |139 |14 |260
July 1981 |131 |121 |15 |267
January 1982 |105 |122 |17 |244
July 1982 |87 |131 |17 |235
January 1983 |107 |133 |12 |252
July 1983 |123 |134 |11 |268
January 1984 |129 |142 |16 |287
July 1984 |126 |129 |16 |271
January 1985 |128 |148 |17 |293
July 1985 |149 |137 |18 |304
January 1986 |125 |172 |28 |325
July 1986 |106 |161 |19 |286
January 1987 |104 |186 |31 |321
July 1987 |115 |164 |24 |303
January 1988 |93 |190 |35 |318
July 1988 |130 |183 |27 |340
January 1989 |89 |197 |41 |327
July 1989 |78 |203 |37 |318
Hertfordshire has provided accommodation for
203 gipsy caravans on 148 pitches on nine local
authority sites; of which 48 pitches on four sites
have been provided since 1980.
Surrey gipsy caravans
|Unauthorised |Authorised |Private |Total
|(local authority)|(authorised)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 1980 |179 |146 |83 |408
July 1980 |152 |150 |64 |366
January 1981 |207 |155 |77 |439
July 1981 |149 |160 |62 |371
January 1982 |154 |175 |98 |427
July 1982 |202 |188 |60 |450
January 1983 |169 |207 |76 |452
July 1983 |144 |191 |76 |411
January 1984 |161 |217 |102 |480
July 1984 |137 |208 |75 |420
January 1985 |138 |197 |97 |432
July 1985 |142 |190 |76 |408
January 1986 |162 |224 |89 |475
July 1986 |204 |195 |77 |476
January 1987 |146 |256 |85 |487
July 1987 |201 |237 |89 |527
January 1988 |191 |276 |94 |561
July 1988 |236 |252 |89 |577
January 1989 |166 |265 |99 |530
July 1989 |203 |253 |91 |547
Surrey has provided accommodation for 253
gipsy caravans on 204 pitches on 15 local
authority sites; of which 100 pitches on
eight sites have been provided since 1980.
The Department does not maintain records on private sites in these areas, the extent of which provision is revealed by the Department's biannual count returns.
House of Commons (Repairs)
Mr. Terry Davis : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the cash limit on minor repairs at the House of Commons in 1989-90 includes repairs at Norman Shaw, North and Norman Shaw, South.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 23 February 1990] : As I told the hon. Member in response to his question of 19 February (column 482 ) minor repairs to the Parliamentary Estate are charged to class XX, vote 18, which is cash limited. The Norman Shaw buildings form part of the Parliamentary Estate.
Mobile Homes
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has of the annual numbers of complaint referrals made to local authority executive officers by mobile home owners concerning (a) alleged criminal acts and (b) alleged harassment by site operators since the implementation of the Mobile Homes Act 1983.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 26 February 1990] : The information is not held centrally.
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received concerning the workings of the Mobile Homes Act 1983 ; and whether he is considering any revisions to the Act as a result of these submissions.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 26 February 1990] : The Department has received various letters from hon.
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Members and the public about the operation of the 1983 Act, and is currently carrying out research into the mobile homes sector. We have no plans to amend the legislation.Beach Pollution (Sussex)
Mr. Rathbone : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to the answer to the private notice question from the hon. Member for Dewsbury (Mrs. Taylor) on 22 February, what steps he will take to ensure that no charge capping will be applied to any authority incurring extra costs of tackling recent serious pollution on Sussex beaches, if those costs lead to higher than planned community charge.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 26 February 1990]: My right hon. Friend has made it clear that he will not hesitate to cap authorities which insist on spending excessively. It would not be right for me to speculate on how any capping scheme might operate if my right hon. Friend needed to use his capping powers next year.
Toxic Material (Labelling)
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what safeguards there are to ensure containers of toxic material are properly marked so as to prevent the type of accident that happened at TNT Northampton on 16 February ; (2) what sanctions there are against consignees, hauliers and recipients of inadequately labelled toxic substances.
Mr. Atkins [holding answer 26 February 1990] : I have been asked to reply.
Correct labelling is a requirement of the Classification, Packaging and Labelling of Dangerous Substances Regulations 1984. Those who breach the regulations are liable to prosecution and may be fined up to £2,000 by a magistrates court or an unlimited fine by a Crown court.
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