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Regional Development and Rural Policy

Mr. Peter Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he proposes to consult on the administrative guidance promised to regional development agencies on sustainable development and rural policy. [64741]

Mr. Caborn: We have recently consulted on draft statutory guidance for Regional Development Agencies on the development of their regional strategies. In that guidance we have stressed that RDAs should take an integrated and sustainable approach to tackling economic issues across their regions, taking account of the particular features of their rural areas.

The guidance notes on sustainable development and rural policy that are being issued in draft today are intended to assist the RDAs on these matters. Copies are being sent to those national and regional organisations which have expressed an interest in these areas, and are also available on request from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. I am placing copies in the House Library.

The drafts build on informal soundings taken both within and outside Government and will form part of a package of guidance to be available to the RDAs early in the new year.

Local Government Finance

Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he will issue the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Determination for 1999-2000. [64782]

Ms Armstrong: I have decided to confirm the proposals for the Determination on which we consulted authorities on 29 October 1998. My Department will be sending copies of the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Determination 1999-2000, the Item 8 Credit and Item 8 Debit (General)

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Determination 1999-2000 and the General Determination of Administration of Housing Revenue Account Subsidy 1998 to all local housing authorities in England. Copies of the Determinations will be placed in the Library of the House next week.

Ms Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what resources he will make available to authorities that have been reorganised on 1 April 1997 and 1998 for reorganisation costs incurred by them in 1999-2000; and if he will make a statement. [64787]

Ms Armstrong: On 9 October I invited authorities which were eligible to participate in the Local Government Reorganisation Cost Scheme for 1999-2000 which reorganised before 1 April 1998, to submit estimates of the amount of expenditure they expect to incur on transitional costs of reorganisation in 1999-2000. On the basis, inter alia, of the information provided by the authorities, I have decided the maximum amounts that it would be appropriate to allocate towards such costs.

The amounts are as follows:

Maximum amounts: £000 rounded

Authority	1999-2000
1997 Reorganisations
Luton Borough Council	200
Derby City Council	920
Bournemouth Borough Council	1,075
Darlington Borough Council	1,102
Portsmouth City Council	1,307
Southampton City Council	2,541
Rutland Council	1,400
Stoke-on-Trent City Council	1,300
Swindon Borough Council	349
Total	10,194
1998 Reorganisations
West Berkshire Council	500
Reading Borough Council	4,131
Slough Borough Council	4,555
Wokingham District Council	1,587
County of Hertfordshire District Council	6,545
Worcestershire County Council	1,250
Plymouth City Council	3,442
Torbay Borough Council	3,782
Thurrock Borough Council	2,423
Nottingham County Council	1,465
Halton Borough Council	3,587
Telford & Wrekin District Council	699
Medway Borough Council	4,178
Peterborough City Council	902
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council	1,900
Blackpool Borough Council	975
Total	41,921
Combined total allocations	52,115

Rent Increases

Ms Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if, following the consultation paper Limiting Fair Rent Increases, published in the summer, he intends to introduce measures to help tenants facing exceptionally high fair rent increases. [64788]

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Ms Armstrong: Tenants have been facing exceptionally high fair rent increases, following recent court cases. We received more than 500 responses to the consultation paper we issued in the summer which proposed limiting fair rent increases by applying a formula linked to the Retail Prices Index (RPI). There was overwhelming support for this from individual tenants and tenants' organisations. They considered our proposed limits were too high, however, and we have responded to this.

We propose, therefore, to go ahead and introduce new limits by making an Order under Section 31 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

Rent officers and rent assessment committees will continue to determine fair rents as they do now. Where applications for re-registration are made to the rent officer after the Order comes into effect, however, fair rent increases will be limited to RPI + 7.5 per cent. for the first re-registration (rather than RPI + 10 per cent. as originally proposed) and RPI + 5 per cent. for subsequent re- registrations. This will ease the anxiety faced now by thousands of tenants, many of whom are elderly or on fixed incomes. It will give them certainty that their rents cannot be increased by more than these limits.

If there is no existing fair rent registration for the property, these limits will not apply. Nor will they apply if the rent officer or rent assessment committee considers that repairs or improvements carried out by the landlord have changed the condition of the property or common parts so much that the new rent should be at least 15 per cent. more than the existing registered rent. I believe that, in these limited circumstances only, it is fair for landlords to charge the full fair rent increase.

The new limits will apply to private tenants and secure tenants of registered social landlords who have a fair rent registered under the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976 or the Rent Act 1977. They will not apply to rent increases for assured or assured shorthold tenancies under the Housing Act 1988. We have no plans to change the legislative framework for these tenancies.

The Order will be laid immediately after the Parliamentary Recess and will come into force shortly afterwards. My Department will make a further announcement when the Order is laid. We will issue a leaflet for landlords and tenants explaining in detail when the limits apply and how rent officers and rent assessment committees will calculate them, and details will appear on our internet site.

Best Value

Mr. Watts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to allow the Audit Commission to fulfil its proposed role in relation to best value; and if he will make a statement. [64789]

Ms Armstrong: The Audit Commission has a key role to play in our agenda for modernising local government particularly in implementing our proposals for best value.

We are to give new audit and inspection powers to the Commission as part of our proposals for best value. The Local Government Bill, currently before Parliament, provides for this. The Commission will arrange for

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the annual audit of Local Performance Plans, and for the inspection of local authorities' activities in areas other than those which are the responsibility of the existing specialist Inspectorates such as OFSTED, SSI and HMIC. The Commission will, however, work closely with these Inspectorates, as they do now, to ensure that all the necessary skills are brought to bear in securing best value.

The Commission will also be given powers to recommend action by the Secretary of State where an authority fails to achieve best value.

To ensure that these new functions are fully co-ordinated with the work of the other Inspectorates, I confirm both our commitment to establish an Inspectorate Forum to discuss common inspection interests, and our intention to take a power in the Local Government Bill to enable arrangements to be made where necessary to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the inspection process.

Our work on ensuring proper co-ordination between the Commission and other Inspectorates in relation to best value and local government will fulfil the principal recommendation of the Prior Options Study of the Financial Management and Policy Review (FMPR) of the Audit Commission, which I am publishing today. Copies of the Report have been placed in the House Library.

This study, concluding that the functions of the Commission are necessary and best carried out by that body, proposed a study linked with best value to put in place a framework of working arrangements to provide a means of resolving differences between the various audit and inspection bodies involved. Our proposals for the Forum and new power will ensure such arrangements are in place.

We will now also be proceeding with the second stage of the FMPR. This looks at the detailed organisation and procedures which will be best suited to the Commission as it continues its traditional audit functions and embraces its new roles within best value. To lead the Audit Commission through this period of significant change, my right hon. Friends the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretaries of State for Health and for Wales, have today appointed Helena Shovelton as its new Chairman. It will be for her and her fellow Commissioners to ensure that the highest standards of professionalism and objectivity--for which the Commission has been known--are continued, not only in its traditional audit roles, but also in its new tasks in the best value framework.

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