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French Hauliers
Mr. Maples: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the obligations of the French Government under EU law in relation to free trade within France and the action it has taken to fulfil these obligations in respect of the dispute by French hauliers. [105007]
Mr. Hill: Council Regulation (EC) 2679/98 requires member states to take all necessary and proportionate measures in order to facilitate the free movement of goods on their territories. Such measures must not, however, affect the exercise of fundamental rights, including the right or freedom to strike. The blockades, which were set up in France on 10 January, were removed on 12 January.
Mr. Maples:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what representations he has made to the (a) French Government and (b) European Commission, regarding the dispute by French hauliers; and if he will make a statement. [105006]
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Mr. Hill:
My right hon. and noble Friend the Minister for Transport wrote to the French Transport Minister on Tuesday 11 January to express our concern that yet again British hauliers were being prevented from going about their lawful business by a domestic dispute in France. My right hon. and noble Friend also sought assurances that the French Government would ensure the safety and well being of any British lorry drivers caught up in the dispute, and would act quickly to restore the free movement of goods. The letter was copied to the European Commission.
Mr. Maples:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimates the Government have received of the cost to British companies of the French hauliers' dispute; and if he will make a statement. [105012]
Mr. Hoyle:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the cost to British business of the latest road blockade in France. [105265]
Mr. Hill:
Regrettably, a number of companies and individuals will have incurred financial loss and suffered delay and general inconvenience as a result of the dispute in France. The Government have received no estimates of these overall costs and have no means of assessing what they might be.
Mr. Maples:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he has discussed with the French Government the issue of compensation for British lorry drivers whose livelihoods are affected by the French hauliers' dispute. [105008]
Mr. Hill:
It is a cause for concern that, yet again, British hauliers have suffered financially as a result of a domestic dispute in France. However, as the French Government gave notice of this dispute on Friday 7 January, any hauliers who subsequently chose to travel to France and were then blockaded there are unlikely to be eligible for compensation under the relevant French law. Similarly, vehicles that were delayed outside French territory would not be eligible for compensation under French legislation.
Ms Atherton:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what recent representations he has received regarding the use of netting to secure scrap metal carried in open-top lorries; [105141]
Mr. Hill:
There have been no representations regarding the use of netting to secure scrap metal carried in open top lorries.
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Sections 1 and 2 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 require any load carried by a vehicle to be secured at all times and if necessary by physical restraints. To support this my Department issues a Code of Practice on the Safety of Loads on Goods Vehicles, which advises on the best practices for securing loads. This Code is widely used throughout the road haulage industry.
Mr. Hurst:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what percentage of waste from London boroughs in 1998 was disposed of outside the area of the former Greater London Council. [105326]
Mr. Mullin:
It is for each individual Waste Disposal Authority in London to make its own arrangements for the disposal of municipal waste arising in its area. My Department does not seek or keep information on where that waste is disposed.
Mr. Stevenson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what resources have been made available to Stoke-on-Trent City Council under the housing capital receipts policy in each year since its inception, including amounts agreed for 2000-01. [105156]
Mr. Mullin:
The allocations made to Stoke-on-Trent City Council under the Capital Receipts Initiative (CRI) were as follows:
(2) what recent guidance he has issued to road haulage companies regarding the securing of scrap metal carried in lorries. [105142]
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 907,000 |
| 1998-99 | 3,141,000 |
| 1999-2000 | 2,894,000 |
There is no separate CRI allocation for 2000-01 as the resources for the CRI, and for support for private sector renovation grants, have been included within the main housing allocation. This has been done to provide authorities with more flexibility over the use of capital resources and to reduce the administrative burdens of operating the three separate funding streams.
Stoke-on-Trent's main housing allocation for 2000-01 is £11.7 million, 49 per cent. more than its equivalent allocation (including CRI and private sector renovation) for 1999-2000 (£7.8 million).
Mr. Collins:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his plans for the proposed Ambleside bypass. [105224]
Mr. Hill:
The Government have no plans for an Ambleside bypass.
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Mr. Jenkin:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 13 January 2000, Official Report, column 213W, on driving agencies, when the Audit Commission report on the DVLA and the DSA will be published. [105644]
Mr. Hill:
I now understand that the Public Services Productivity Panel intend to publish this report on 27 January.
Mr. Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his plans to provide enhanced funding for the management and conservation of areas of outstanding natural beauty. [105291]
Mr. Mullin:
Funding for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) has already been increased this year by allocating an additional £2.5 million to the Countryside Agency to be spent on the management and conservation of designated AONBs. This is more than double the amount previously available. This increased funding will be carried through into the next year, to be supplemented by a further £1 million, bringing the countryside Agency's budget for AONBs in 2000-01 to £5.7 million.
My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment expects to make an announcement soon on other measures to strengthen the protection and management of designated AONBs.
Mr. Ruane:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is his estimate of the cost to the economy of road congestion in each of the last 10 years. [105696]
Mr. Hill:
No complete and consistent set of estimates has, to my knowledge, been compiled. A number of estimates have been made of the value road users place on the extra journey times caused by congestion, for different years and using different methods. They agree that this runs to billions of pounds every year, and has been rising. These estimates do not, though, take into account the very considerable costs of providing congestion-free conditions. We will be examining the economic implications as part of the follow-up to our report, "Tackling Congestion and Pollution", published today.
Mr. Ruane:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what was the total amount of money that local authorities were allowed to spend on (a) housing repairs and (b) new build for each of the past 10 years. [105230]
Mr. Mullin:
The size and composition of local authorities' housing capital programmes is for them to decide in the light of the resources available (from their own resources and in allocations from central Government)
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and their assessment of expenditure priorities. Registered social landlords (RSLs) are now the main providers of new social housing as they can, through the use of private finance, deliver higher levels of outputs. RSL new build is supported through the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme (ADP) as well as by grants from local authorities. Details of central Government allocations to support English local authorities housing capital programmes, a substantial proportion of which goes on renovation of council housing, and the ADP over the past 10 years (in £ million) are as set out.
| Local authority housing capital (2) | ADP (3) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1991-92 | 1,682 | 1,732 |
| 1992-93 | 1,593 | 2,369 |
| 1993-94 | 1,434 | 1,843 |
| 1994-95 | 1,220 | 1,530 |
| 1995-96 | 1,147 | 1,183 |
| 1996-97 | 1,059 | 1,068 |
| 1997-98 | 925 | 702 |
| 1998-99 | 1,210 | 621 |
| 1999-2000 | 1,252 | 643 |
| 2000-01 | 1,891 | 674 |
(2) Excludes allocations for area based regeneration work delivered through the Single Regeneration Budget and Estate Action and the allowance for expenditure assumed to be financed from receipts included in the allocations for individual authorities.
(3) Gross expenditure, including support for rough sleepers and City Challenge.
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many local authority/private partnerships there are in the rented sector, other than housing association partnerships; and what assessment he has made of their effectiveness. [105226]
Mr. Mullin: Information is not available on how many local authority/private partnerships there are for the provision of housing services in the rented sector. However, eight local authorities in England are piloting arrangements with the private sector for the refurbishment and management of housing stock via the Private Finance Initiative. We will be monitoring the effectiveness of these arrangements as they progress.
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what was the total number of houses in multiple occupation in use in each of the past 10 years. [105229]
Mr. Mullin: There are a number of different types of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). The main information on the numbers of HMOs for England are the English House Condition Survey (which is carried out every five years, the last two surveys being conducted in 1991 and 1996) and the Census (1991). There are no reliable sources of information for the intervening years.
Notes:
1. Figures exclude hostels, guest houses, boarding houses and bed and breakfast accommodation. Information for this type of HMO is available only from the 1991 Census which reported 45,000 buildings providing 274,000 units of accommodation under this category.
2. There are slight variations between the statistics quoted above and the figures published in the 1996 English House Condition Survey report. This is because of minor modifications made to improve the EHCS database since publication. The modifications do not affect any of the patterns, findings or conclusions contained in the report.
3. There is a margin of error involved in the estimates arising from the sample nature of the English House Condition Survey and from the complexities of classifying some types of HMO from information obtained through the Census.
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18 Jan 2000 : Column: 363W
Mr. Ruane:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what was the total number of council houses available for rent in each of the past 10 years. [105227]
Mr. Mullin:
The number of local authority-owned properties which were tenanted, or available for letting, in England since 1990 is as follows:
| Year | Dwellings (million) |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 3.990 |
| 1991 | 3.859 |
| 1992 | 3.810 |
| 1993 | 3.729 |
| 1994 | 3.637 |
| 1995 | 3.534 |
| 1996 | 3.438 |
| 1997 | 3.369 |
| 1998 | 3.277 |
| 1999 | 3.142 |
Source:
DETR Annual Housing Investment Programme returns
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