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Elderly Care
Mr. Fearn:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will review
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the funding allocated to Sefton Metropolitan borough council in the 1997-98 revenue support grant in respect of care of the elderly. [2480]
Mr. Raynsford:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Colchester (Mr. Russell) on 10 June 1997, Official Report, column 405.
Mr. Martyn Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will include in his review of the abstraction licensing system new measures to ensure that water companies manage their aquifer resources sustainably; and if he will make a statement. [2789]
Angela Eagle:
A key aim will be to ensure that the environment is properly protected, while providing fair and flexible arrangements for access to water resources by water companies to meet properly managed demands in a sustainable way. Amongst the possible measures which will be studied are economic instruments in relation to abstraction.
Mr. Gummer:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and Regions what specific measures he plans to achieve the Government's target of a reduction in CO2 emissions by 20 per cent. from 1990 levels by 2010. [2678]
Mr. Prescott:
We are reviewing the United Kingdom's Climate Change Programme looking at policies and measures across all sectors which could contribute to a 20 per cent. reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 levels by 2010. These include improvements in areas such as domestic and industrial energy efficiency, measures to tackle emissions from the transport sector as part of the integrated transport strategy, and a large increase in the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources and combined heat and power schemes. We shall produce a revised programme after Kyoto.
Mr. Stunell:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment Transport and the Regions (1) if he will bring forward a comprehensive policy for domestic waste reduction, with special reference to control of packaging, reuse of materials and recycling, developed within local authorities and voluntary groups in partnership; and if he will make a statement; [3001]
Angela Eagle:
The Government will be looking carefully at existing practice and policy in the field of waste management, to see how the contribution from recycling and other means of recovering value from waste can be maximised. At present, only 6.5 per cent. of household waste is recycled, and only 12 per cent. of municipal waste has some value recovered from it. Local
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authorities, voluntary groups, households and businesses all have a vital contribution to make in improving the sustainability of our waste management practices. Reduction of waste at source has an important part to play, and we hope to see the development of imaginative and effective initiatives to encourage it.
Current proposals for incineration plants will be considered, in the normal way, under the existing planning framework. We will keep under review the evidence on emissions from incinerators. It is essential that both new and existing incinerators meet stringent emissions standards to protect public health and the environment.
Mrs. Ballard:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make it his policy to ensure that rateable businesses which temporarily cease to pay non-domestic rates due to the inability to trade for reasons of natural disasters are not treated as new accounts, which do not receive transitional relief, once they restart trading. [2824]
Mr. Raynsford:
Properties removed from the rating list because they have been rendered incapable of occupation, for whatever reason, will necessarily require refurbishment or reconstruction, possibly to a higher standard than was the case before. We have no proposals to change the rule that such properties on re-entering the list should be denied transitional relief.
Mr. Pike:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many and what percentage of properties in Burnley are in (i) council tax band A and (ii) council tax band B. [2887]
(2) if he will review all current proposals for waste incineration plants to establish (a) the health and environmental risks of emissions and (b) the extent to which the implementation of policies to improve recycling of domestic waste might reduce the need for incineration. [3002]
| Band A | Per cent. of total | Band B | Per cent. of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26,358 | 65.7 | 4,084 | 10.2 |
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions which 50 local authorities in England have the highest percentage of properties in (i) council tax band A and (ii) council tax band B; and which 50 local authorities have the lowest percentage in those bands. [2888]
Mr. Raynsford: I have today placed the information in the Library of the House.
Development (Stevenage)
Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is his Department's policy regarding development west of Stevenage. [3058]
Mr. Raynsford:
Planning Policy Guidance Note 2 states that releases of land from the Green Belt--like the proposals in Hertfordshire County Council's Structure Plan Review for development west of Stevenage--should
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take place only in exceptional circumstances. It will be for the County Council to respond to the recommendations of the independent Panel who conducted an examination in public of the Structure Plan Review proposals in March. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minster will consider that response before taking a view on whether the case for any Green Belt releases has been made.
Mr. Vaz:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he plans to meet the chief executive and chairman of the Housing Corporation; and if he will make a statement. [3059]
Mr. Raynsford:
My hon. Friend the Minister of State for Local Government and Housing and I met the Chief Executive and Chairman of the Housing Corporation on 2 June. We had a fruitful and informative discussion about the work and role of the Corporation and we look forward to working together in the coming months.
Mr. Mackinlay:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the current level of set-aside capital receipts derived from the sale of council houses for each local authority in Essex. [3010]
Mr. Raynsford:
The amounts of housing capital receipts which were set aside by each local authority in Essex between 1990-91 and 1995-96 are set out in the table. However, individual authorities may have used these set-aside receipts to repay debt or in lieu of further borrowing, and so may no longer retain them in the form of cash and investments.
| Receipts setaside from sales of Housing Revenue Account assets 1990-91 to 1995-96 £000s | |
|---|---|
| Basildon | 10,465 |
| Braintree | 13,072 |
| Brentwood | 5,404 |
| Castle Point | 2,588 |
| Chelmsford | 13,172 |
| Colchester | 11,629 |
| Epping Forest | 14,694 |
| Harlow | 27,644 |
| Maldon | 15,346 |
| Rochford | 2,295 |
| Southend-on-Sea | 7,330 |
| Tendring | 4,588 |
| Thurrock | 17,017 |
| Uttlesford | 6,931 |
Note:
Source of data: HRA subsidy claim forms.
We will be consulting the Local Government Association and local authorities on the Government's Capital Receipts Initiative in due course. No decision about the basis on which resources are to be distributed to individual authorities will be made until that consultation process is complete.
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Ms Ellman:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what financial support he is giving in the current year to English local authorities and to the Environment Agency to meet capital costs of site investigation and remediation of contaminated land. [3183]
Angela Eagle:
The Department of the Environment's Contaminated Land Supplementary Credit Approval programme, which has a budget of £14 million in the current financial year, provides support for capital costs incurred by English local authorities where they are responsible for the investigation or remediation of contaminated land. The programme also is able to provide support, in the form of additional grant-in-aid, to the Environment Agency where it is carrying out works to deal with water pollution from contaminated land.
The programme is aimed at tackling problems on sites owned by local authorities or those where authorities or the Environment Agency have responsibility to take action and cannot recover their costs from third parties. The Department operates an assessment and prioritisation procedure to ensure that the available funding goes to projects representing the greatest threat to health or the environment.
Some authorities have already been notified of support, where this is to meet on-going contractual commitments for projects funded in previous years. The Department of the Environment has today written to local authorities with successful bids for new projects and to the Environment Agency, notifying them of the financial allocations which are being made.
The following table sets out the allocations which have been made for the current financial year.
Note:
Total allocations include an over-programming margin against the total budget to allow for slippage in expenditure on individual projects.
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