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London Underground
Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much funding London Underground has received over the past 10 years ; what assessment he has made of the amount of money which will need to be invested in the underground to bring its services to a reasonable standard ; and what assessment he has made of whether safety work on the Underground is being delayed because of lack of investment.
Mr. Norris : The Government do not fund London Underground Ltd. (LUL) directly, but makes an annual grant to LUL's parent body, London Transport (LT). London Transport's grant settlement for the three years from 1994-95 was announced on 30 November, and it is currently in the process of allocating this settlement between its subsidiaries. Decisions on the need for and the timing of investment projects are for LUL to make, but safety remains a key priority, and there is no question of it being jeopardised. The amounts LUL has spent on investment over the last 10 years are shown in the table.
LUL investment 1984-85-1993-94 £ million 1993-94 prices Year |LUL (CORE)|JLE |Crossrail |Total ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1984-85 |188 |0 |0 |188 1985-86 |206 |0 |0 |206 1986-87 |253 |0 |0 |253 1987-88 |298 |0 |0 |298 1988-89 |269 |0 |0 |269 1989-90 |376 |0 |0 |376 1990-91 |470 |45 |6 |521 1991-92 |317 |64 |13 |394 1992-93 |649 |65 |27 |741 <1>1993-94 |465 |200 |50 |715 Source of figures (for all years up to 1992-93)-LT annual reports. <1>Latest forecast figures.
Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when the Northern line on the London Underground is due to be modernised.
Mr. Norris : Decisions on the implementation of capital investment projects, such as the modernisation of the Northern line, are for London Transport and London Underground Ltd. to make. However, I understand that the Northern line is the next line due to be modernised after the Central line, which is on schedule for completion in 1995.
Departmental Costs
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give the current year's contribution to site costs and overheads at each operating unit of (a) the construction programme, (b) the network management and maintenance units, (c) the London regional office and (d) the headquarters directorates of his Department.
Mr. Norris : The figures below relate to the highways safety and traffic command of the Department of Transport, excluding the traffic area offices. The current pay, non-pay, accommodation and administrative capital budgets are :
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r
|Pay |Non-pay |Accommodation |Administrative
|capital
|£ million |£ million |£ million |£ million
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Construction programme division OUs |18.255 |2.567 |3.712 |0.392
Network management and maintenance OUs |16.588 |3.822 |4.290 |0.380
London regional office |6.756 |0.333 |1.648 |0.052
HQ directorates |23.492 |3.971 |6.064 |<1>1.800
<1>The administrative capital figure for HQ directorates includes the IT budget of £1.5 million which is held
centrally for use throughout highways safety and traffic command.
Budgets for individual operating units (OUs) are not now monitored centrally as the directors in charge of the construction programme divisions, network management divisions, London regional office and HQ directorates have discretion to switch funds between OUs in the interests of efficient administration. The figures shown vary during the course of the year as directors switch funding into or out of other budgets.
Railtrack
Mr. Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will place in the Library the reports produced by Coopers and Lybrand and other consultants on access charging prices for Railtrack.
Mr. Freeman : No. The reports contain commercially confidential information.
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Trains (WC Facilities)
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent discussions he has had with the chairman of British Rail about its finance and the running of trains without WC facilities ; and what provisions of the passengers charter apply to these facilities.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 30 November 1993] : The provision and cleaning of toilet facilities on trains is an operational matter for the board. Although the passengers charter does not refer specifically to this aspect of service, the provision of clean toilets on longer distance services is an important aspect of BR's commitment to provide a high quality of service. For this reason, BR regularly monitors customer satisfaction with this aspect of its service.
ENVIRONMENT
Local Government Reorganisation
13. Mr. Hutton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to issue new guidance to the Local Government Commission for its work on reorganising the structure of local government in England.
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Mr. Curry : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State issued revised policy guidance to the Local Government Commission on 2 November. We published revised procedure guidance on 22 November and directed the commission to begin on 13 December all its remaining shire reviews, including that of Cumbria.
Copies of both sets of guidance have been placed in the House Library.
21. Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his latest estimate of the cost to local authorities in England of preparing for local government reforms.
Mr. Gummer : I have made no such estimate.
Eco-Labelling
14. Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the United Kingdom Ecolabelling Board.
Mr. Yeo : The United Kingdom Ecolabelling Board awarded the first European Community ecolabels to a British manufacturer, Hoover Ltd, for three washing machines in its New Wave Range on 25 November. The board, which has recently been strengthened by the appointment of two environmental experts, continues to play a leading role within Europe in the development of ecolabelling.
Contaminated Land
15. Dame Jill Knight : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he intends taking to help the construction industry counter the problems posed by the present regulations on contaminated land.
Mr. Baldry : There are no regulations. The Government are reviewing policy and contributing about £1.5 million a year towards research into decontamination and building on contaminated land.
Energy Efficiency
16. Mrs. Helen Jackson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to improve energy efficiency standards in buildings.
Mr. Yeo : In recent years the budget for my Department's Energy Efficiency Office (EEO) has substantially increased, and for 1994-95 will be over £100 million, over 17 times the real level of expenditure in 1979-80. Much of this will relate to buildings.
THORP
17. Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will convene a full and independent public inquiry into the commissioning of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : Responses to the consultation are still being assessed. When they have all been carefully considered, my right hon. Friend the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and I will decide whether to afford a hearing or inquiry and, if we decide not to do so, will take final decisions on the authorisations.
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Solent
18. Mr. Denham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to announce the criteria that will be used for the classification of the Solent in respect of estuarine status for use under the urban waste water treatment directive.
Mr. Yeo : The two different bases used for defining the outer limits of estuaries in the United Kingdom were set out in draft guidance to accompany draft implementing regulations for the directive. Both drafts were issued for public consultation in April of this year.
29. Mr. Viggers : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he expects a change in the classification of the Solent for the purposes of water quality.
Mr. Yeo : I shall be announcing my decision on the classification of the Solent for the purposes of the UWWTD in due course.
Right to Buy
19. Mr. Mark Robinson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what further steps he is taking to help council tenants to buy their houses.
Sir George Young : We introduced our new rent to mortgage scheme on 11 October. This will extend new opportunity of home ownership to council tenants who are financially secure, but cannot quite afford to buy their homes outright. My right hon. Friend also announced yesterday a £30 million boost to the cash incentive scheme, which helps council tenants to buy their own home in the private sector. Similar grants are also available to housing association tenants.
22. Sir Donald Thompson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many homes have been sold under right-to-buy legislation.
Sir George Young : In England, a total of 1.17 million homes have been sold under the right to buy. The figure for Great Britain as a whole is almost 1.5 million.
Council Tax
20. Mr. Jacques Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the 10 local councils which charged the highest rate of council tax this year.
Mr. Baldry : The 10 local councils in England with the highest headline band C council taxes are :
Authority |£ ---------------------------------------- Newcastle upon Tyne |704 Greenwich |696 Manchester |656 Haringey |646 Liverpool |645 Harlow |644 Camden |638 North Tynside |628 Salford |628 Derwentside |626
Mrs. Beckett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many appeals against council tax
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valuation there have been since the original council tax valuations took place, (a) in total (b) by local authority and (c) by standard region ; and what was the average cost of processing those appeals in the financial year in which they occurred.Mr. Curry : I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave her on 25 November, at columns 190-205.
Standard Spending Assessments
23. Mr. Illsley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to announce changes to, and the level of, standard spending assessments.
Mr. Curry : My right hon. Friend will make a statement to the House shortly on the provisional revenue support grant settlement for 1994-95, including details of proposals for standard spending assessments.
Local Government (Suffolk)
24. Mr. Spring : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment to what extent he is taking into account local opinion in determining the future of local government in Suffolk.
Mr. Curry : The Local Government Commission will begin its review of local government in Suffolk on 13 December. The commission must take into consideration all relevant representations made to it. We shall take local views fully into account when considering the commission's recommendations.
Hazardous Waste
25. Mr. Roy Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek powers to strengthen the regulations for the importation of hazardous waste.
Mr. Yeo : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is considering the need for additional provisions to implement the EC Waste Shipments Regulation.
Council House Sales
26. Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment which local authorities have sold off all of their council housing stock.
Sir George Young : The following 23 councils have transferred all or most of their housing stock to housing associations :
Breckland DC
Broadland DC
London Borough of Bromley
Chiltern DC
Christchurch BC
East Cambridgeshire DC
East Dorset DC
Hambleton DC
Medina BC
Mid Sussex DC
Newbury DC
North Bedfordshire DC
Rochester upon Medway City C
Ryedale DC
Sevenoaks DC
South Buckinghamshire DC
South Wight BC
Suffolk Coastal DC
Surrey Heath BC
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Swale BCTonbridge and Malling BC
Tunbridge Wells BC
West Dorset DC
A further eight councils on the 1993-94 disposals programme have won tenant support for transfer and are expected to submit applications for permission to transfer by March next year. I am also pleased that the public expenditure provision for housing announced yesterday will enable the programme to be expanded in future. Fourteen authorities have applied for inclusion in next year's programme and I hope to announce the successful applicants in the next couple of weeks.
Homelessness
27. Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the number of homeless families in the west midlands.
Sir George Young : In the 12 months ending June 1993 the number of households for which local authorities in the west midlands accepted responsibility for securing permanent accommodation under the provisions of part III of the Housing Act 1985 was 17,570. This is some 300 (1.7 per cent.) less than the number accepted in the previous year ending June 1992.
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing the total number of households (a) applying and (b) accepted by each of the London boroughs as homeless under the provisions of part III of the Housing Act 1985 in each year from 1979 ; and how many homeless households were accommodated in (i) bed and breakfast hotels and (ii) other temporary accommodation at the end of each of those years.
Sir George Young : I have today placed in the Library a table giving the numbers of households which each local authority in England reported as having accepted responsibility to secure permanent accommodation under the homelessness provisions of the Housing Act 1985 in the years 1979 to 1992.
Information on applications, for 1991 and 1992 only (this was not collected prior to 1991), and the numbers of households in the various types of temporary accommodation at the end of the year reported by London boroughs can be found in the following editions of "Local Housing Statistics : England and Wales".
Year |Table number |Edition number ------------------------------------------------------------ 1979 |14 |54 1980 |13 |62 1981 | 7 |63 1982 | 9 |66 1983 |12 |70 1984 |12 |74 1985 | 9(b) |78 1986 | 9(b) |82 1987 | 9(b) |86 1988 | 9(b) |90 1989 | 9(b) |94 1990 | 9(b) |98 1991 | 9(b) |102 1992 | 8(b) |106
Copies of all these publications are in the Library.
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Social Security Spending
28. Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what contribution he is making to the Government's review of social security spending.
Mr. Gummer : Ministers and officials in the Departments of the Environment and of Social Security are in regular contact about issues of mutual interest. A formal working group has been established to discuss matters relating to housing and benefits policy.
Local Government (North Yorkshire)
30. Mr. John Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what advice he has given to the Local Government Commission about the review of local government in North Yorkshire.
Mr. Baldry : The review of local government in Humberside, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire is being conducted in accordance with the original policy and procedure guidance which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State issued to the commission in July 1992. Copies are in the Library of the House.
Construction Industry
31. Mr. Ward : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he has taken within his Department to support his sponsorship of the construction industry.
Mr. Baldry : A new construction sponsorship directorate has been set up within the Department of the Environment with the aim of helping all sectors of the United Kingdom construction industry to succeed in their domestic, European and world markets. It is the advocate within Government and the European Union for the industry.
Derelict Land Grants
32. Mr. Purchase : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he next intends to meet the Association of Metropolitan Authorities to discuss derelict land grants.
Sir George Young : I have no immediate plans to meet the AMA but if it has specific concerns about derelict land grants, I am happy to take note of them.
Responsibility for the derelict land grant programme will pass next spring to English Partnerships, about which the AMA has been fully consulted.
Conservation Areas (Protection of Premises)
33. Mr. John Townend : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the use of powers of local authorities to restrict traders' rights to protect their premises in conservation areas.
Mr. Curry : Installation of shutters or other security devices which would materially affect the external appearance of a commercial building in a conservation area requires planning permission. In considering applications for planning permission, local planning authorities--or on appeal the Secretary of State--must take into account appropriate local plan policies and other material considerations. In the case of applications relating to a
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building in a conservation area, security considerations have to be balanced against the statutory requirement to have special regard to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of the area.My Department's draft circular "Planning and Crime Prevention", currently subject to public consultation, encourages planning authorities to adopt a sympathetic approach where the security of listed buildings and buildings in conservation areas is concerned and to explore with applicants the scope for a mutually acceptable solution to their requirements. A copy of the draft circular is available in the Library.
Local Government Commission
34. Mr. Robert B. Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he next plans to meet Sir John Banham to discuss the progress of the Local Government Commission.
Mr. Gummer : I am next scheduled to meet Sir John Banham on Tuesday 18 January.
Concessionary Fares (London)
35. Mr. Austin-Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review the provision made in calculating standard spending assessments and grant distribution to London authorities to reflect expenditure on concessionary fare schemes ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : As part of the review of standard spending assessments for 1994-95 we have considered carefully the case for including specific provision for spending on concessionary fares in London. My right hon. Friend will announce his proposals for SSAs shortly.
Bury Metro
36. Mr. Sumberg : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received in relation to the calculation of the standard spending assessment for Bury Metro ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Baldry : We have received representations from the metropolitan borough of Bury on a number of standard spending assessment issues and on the assessment for education in particular. My right hon. Friend will announce his proposals for SSAs for 1994-95 shortly.
Private Rented Sector
37. Mr. Hendry : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to boost the private rented sector.
Sir George Young : We have already taken action to boost the private rented sector by introducing deregulation measures in the Housing Act 1988 to encourage landlords to bring their property on to the market. Landlords are now able to let property under assured and assured shorthold tenancies and charge market rents.
Specific initiatives launched last year include the rent-a-room scheme, under which householders no longer have to pay tax on rent from a lodger in their home if the gross amount of the rent is no more than £3,250, the flats-over-shops scheme, under which £25 million is being
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