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Rented Property

Mr. Allason: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if properties remain subject to assessment by the rent officer service where a tenant's consent has been obtained on form RR1. [10251]

Mr. Clappison: Schedule 11 to the Rent Act 1977 sets out the procedures for rent officers receiving applications for the registration of a rent.

If a landlord and tenant apply jointly on form RR1 for the registration of a rent, the rent officer may, after making any enquiry he thinks fit or asking for any information he requires, simply register the asking rent if he thinks it is a fair rent. If he does not think it is a fair rent, he may determine a fair rent.

Homelessness

Mr. Raynsford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Enviornment (1) what action was taken by local authorities in England for those households accepted as homeless and in priority need by reason of old age, in each quarter of 1993 and 1994 and in the first two quarters of 1995; [10262]

(2) what were the reasons for homelessness among those households accepted as homeless by local authorities in England, who were in priority need by reason of old age, in each quarter in 1993 and 1994 and in the first two quarters of 1995. [10266]

Mr. Curry: The quarterly P1(E) return on which local authorities in England report information on their activities under the homelessness provisions of the Housing Act 1985 does not provide a breakdown by priority need category of the data collected on the use of temporary accommodation for households accepted for re-housing, the type of accommodation in which households are finally placed or the reason for the loss of previous settled accommodation.

Wild Birds (Shooting Licences)

Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list by species the number of licences issued in 1995 under the terms of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 for the destruction of wild birds; and how many birds were killed in each case. [10152]

Mr. Clappison: Details of licences issued under section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 are contained in reports by the Untied Kingdom to the European Community on derogations under article 9 of the directive on the conservation of wild birds (79/409/EEC). The latest report for which figures are

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available covers 1994. Figures are not yet available for 1995, but when the report has been prepared a copy will be placed in the Library of the House.

Rough Sleepers (London)

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what emergency provisions were made for rough sleepers in metropolitan areas during the very cold spell over Christmas and the new year; and if he will make a statement. [9972]

Mr. Curry: Under the Government's rough sleepers initiative, an annual programme of winter shelters provides additional beds for rough sleepers in central London between December and March. The 1995-96 programme is providing 310 beds in seven shelters. Extra emergency beds are opened during particularly cold spells and, so far this winter, up to 125 beds have been made available between 5 and 13 December and between 21 December and 7 January.

Extra assistance for rough sleepers during the winter is also provided nationally by local authorities and voluntary sector agencies.

European Regional Fund

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many bids have been successfully made for objective 1 status funding in Merseyside; and how many relate to (a) the Wirral and (b) the Liverpool side of the river. [10458]

Sir Paul Beresford: A total of 1,521 bids have so far received approval under the objective 1 process. Of these some 300 are based in or being delivered directly in the Wirral. A further 178 training projects involve some beneficiaries from the Wirral and a further 30 business support and technology transfer projects will benefit companies across Merseyside. This leaves 1,013 projects based in or directly aimed at residents of the other four Merseyside districts.

East Cambridgeshire District Council

Sir Anthony Grant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he has decided to take in relation to East Cambridgeshire district council following the notice served on it on 19 May 1995 in respect of anti-competitive behaviour in awarding a refuse collection contract in-house. [10588]

Sir Paul Beresford: On 19 May my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, served a notice under section 13 of the Local Government Act 1988 on East Cambridgeshire district council, setting out his view that the authority had acted anti-competitively during a competition for refuse collection work.

My right hon. Friend has given careful consideration to the response to that notice. East Cambridgeshire awarded the contract for refuse collection to its direct service organisation when it had received substantially lower bids from private companies. In my right hon. Friend's view they did not have well-founded reasons for doing so. He has therefore today given the authority a direction under section 14 of the Act which requires them to retender their

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refuse collection work by 22 January 1997. It must seek his consent if it plans to assign the work to its direct service organisation.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what have been the running costs relating to the tendering process of the private finance initiative in each year since its introduction (a) in real terms and (b) in cash terms disaggregated by (i) staff costs, (ii) information technology and (iii) other costs; [10948]

(2) how much has been spent on external consultants in the tendering process of the private finance initiative in each year since its introduction (a) in real terms and (b) in cash terms disaggregated by (i) legal fees, (ii) publicity costs, (iii) accountancy fees and (iv) management consultancy fees. [10947]

Sir Paul Beresford: The Department of the Environment and its sponsored bodies have achieved increases, year on year, in the amount of private finance attracted in support of departmental programmes. In 1995-96 we estimate that £4.6 billion will be levered-in. The administrative costs of this activity are not separately identified.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the bids for reorganisation costs for 1996-97 that have been made by those local authorities subject to reorganisation on 1 April 1995, 1996 and 1997 and the proportion of the bids which have now been allocated supplementary credit approval cover for 1996-97. [10840]

Sir Paul Beresford: The amounts are as follows:

	Bid	Allocation	Allocation as percentage of bid
1995 Reorganisation
Isle of Wight Council	1,029	500	49
1996 Reorganisations
Hartlepool Borough Council	3,638	2,150	59
Redcar and Cleveland Council	3,980	3,400	85
Middlesbrough Borough Council	3,200	2,750	86
Stockton on Tees Borough Council	7,209	3,250	45
Bath and North East Somerset Council	11,742	(46)--
Bristol City Council	13,826	(46)--
North West Somerset Council	5,301	3,000	57
South Gloucestershire Council	9,541	3,000	37
East Riding Yorkshire Council	18,940	(46)--
Kingston-upon-Hull Council	10,544	(46)--
North Lincolnshire Council	5,625	3,500	62
North-East Lincolnshire Council	6,808	4,000	59
North Yorkshire County Council	492	400	81
Selby District Council	100	100	100
York District Council	19,975	(46)--
1997 Reorganisations
Bedfordshire County Council	4,000	300	8
Luton Borough Council	6,355	3,250	51
Milton Keynes Borough Council	3,452	2,500	72
Derbyshire County Council	6,180	300	5
Derby City Council	7,840	2,500	32
Bournemouth Borough Council	8,210	2,500	30
Poole Borough Council	2,980	2,500	84
Durham County Council	965	300	31
Darlington Borough Council	4,702	2,500	53
East Sussex County Council	3,585	300	8
Brighton Borough Council	1,254	350	28
Hove Borough Council	1,710	350	20
Hampshire County Council	5,131	300	6
Portsmouth City Council	9,561	2,500	26
Southampton City Council	6,040	2,500	41
Staffordshire County Council	5,326.7	300	6
Stoke on Trent City Council	11,539	2,500	22
Wiltshire County Council	1,555	100	6
Thamesdown Borough Council	9,193	2,500	27

(46) The councils of the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull City, Bristol City, Bath and North-East Somerset and York District have been asked to reconsider whether the reorganisations in their area could be implemented more economically. If they submit revised bids by the end of January, they will be considered and allocations made during February.

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Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will update his answers of (a) 17 July 1995, Official Report, columns 868-69, to the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Raynsford) and (b) 17 July 1995, Official Report, column 869, to the hon. Member for Wallsend (Mr. Byers) for the financial year 1994-95. [10942]

Sir Paul Beresford: A list by region of the amounts of accumulated usable capital receipts for each English local authority at 31 March 1995 has been placed in the Library of the House. Figures for the amounts set aside as provision for credit liabilities at 31 March 1995 are not yet available.

The regional totals for these amounts are:

Amounts held at 31 March 1995 (£ million)

Region	Usable receipts
South-East	958
South-West	123
East Anglia	74
West Midlands	78
East Midlands	64
North-West	91
Yorkshire and Humberside	37
Northern	39
Miscellaneous authorities (all regions)	86
Total	1,550

22 Jan 1996 : Column: 86

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