28 Jan 2000 : Column: 355W
Written Answers to Questions
Friday 28 January 2000
ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS
Local Government Finance
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he will announce the outcome of consultation on the local government finance settlement for 2000-01; and if he will make a statement. [107553]
Ms Armstrong: I have today laid before the House the Local Government Finance Report (England) 2000-01 and the Special Grant Report (No. 52). These reports establish the amounts of revenue support grant (RSG) and non-domestic rates (NDR) to be paid to local authorities in 2000-01, and the basis of their distribution; and provide for Standing Spending Assessment (SSA) Reduction Grant and Central Support Protection Grant to be paid to certain authorities for 2000-01. Drafts of these reports were issued for consultation on 25 November 1999. The Department received written representations from the Local Government Association and the Association of London Government, as well as from 166 local authorities and local authority groups.
Having considered the views of the local authority associations and others who have commented on my initial proposals, I have decided not to make changes to SSAs, although the SSAs for individual authorities may be slightly different from those at consultation, generally reflecting more accurate data that have become available since then.
Since the autumn, it has become clear that £35 million less than provided will be needed to meet transitional costs of local government reorganisation. I have decided that it would be appropriate to increase grant support to local authorities by £35 million to help fund service improvements at a more modest cost in council taxes.
This year's settlement provides an overall increase of 5.8 per cent. in Government grant on top of the substantial increase of 5.5 per cent. given to local authorities in the first year of the Comprehensive Spending Review. We have provided a 5.4 per cent. increase in Education Standard Spending Assessments. We have made it clear that education is the Government's top priority, and we expect councils to pass on this increase to schools, in the expectation that the great majority of schools should receive an increase per pupil at least in line with inflation. In the last three years this Government have increased grant to local authorities by £6 billion--a real terms increase of 7.8 per cent in contrast to the previous three years of a real cut in grant of 4.3 per cent.
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It is a settlement which has been generally welcomed by local authorities. We had already provided them with greater predictability by announcing three spending totals in the Comprehensive Spending Review, which sets out further increases in the pipeline for the 2001-02 settlement. We had also given them more responsibility for their spending decisions, by abolishing crude and universal capping.
The settlement ensures that no authority will lose grant next year and local authorities with education and social service responsibilities will receive grant increases of at least 1.5 per cent. It will allow councils to concentrate on their priorities and make the improvements which people wish to see to education and social services. But it also allows them to improve services while continuing the momentum of lower council tax increases.
We hope local authorities will look very carefully at the implications for council tax payers when setting budgets in the coming months.
Local authorities will wish to know that I have received representations from local government on council tax benefit subsidy limitation. I have considered these carefully but decided to make no change to the scheme I proposed on 25 November.
I shall be sending copies of these reports and the Plain English guide to all authorities, together with tables showing each authority's Standard Spending Assessment and its entitlement to RSG, NDR and special grant. I have placed copies of the reports in the Journal Office; and copies of the reports, tables and the guide in the Library.
Mr. Campbell-Savours:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the proportion the population in the United Kingdom which has had access to free concessionary bus transport in each year since 1990. [106820]
Mr. Hill:
The information available to my Department indicates that almost 2.1 million pensioners in the United Kingdom benefit from local authority schemes for free concessionary bus travel--that represents 3.55 per cent. of the UK population. I regret that information is not available for other groups who receive free concessionary bus travel (such as people with disabilities).
Mr. Campbell-Savours:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the local authorities which provide free transport on buses to persons of pensionable age. [106821]
Mr. Hill:
A survey carried out by my department showed that in 1995-96 the following authorities had free travel schemes for pensioners (with age group restrictions and cost of bus pass as indicated):
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Brownfield Sites
Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he will publish the list of brownfield sites in the United Kingdom. [106778]
Ms Beverley Hughes: The first phase of the National Land Use Database collected information, for England, on previously developed sites which may be available for redevelopment. Provisional estimates of the amount of previously developed land that may be available for redevelopment for each Government office region were published last May in the Department's Information Bulletin 500. Final estimates will be published shortly.
Publication of details for individual sites is subject to current work on licence agreements to protect the local authorities' intellectual property rights in the data.
Airports
Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) how many complaints have been received in respect of noise in the previous 12 months at (a) Humberside, (b) Sheffield, (c) Manchester, (d) Leeds-Bradford, (e) Birmingham International, (f) East Midlands, (g) Newcastle, (h) Liverpool Speke, (i) Luton, (j) Stansted, (k) Heathrow and (l) Gatwick airport; [107000]
- (2) what percentage of (i) passengers and (ii) employees at each of (a) Humberside, (b) Sheffield, (c) Manchester, (d) Leeds-Bradford, (e) Birmingham International, (f) East Midlands, (g) Newcastle, (h) Liverpool Speke, (i) Luton, (j) Stansted, (k) Heathrow and (l) Gatwick airport arrived by public transport in the last 12 months; [107001]
(3) how many residential properties lay within the 63 decibel contour at the most recent date for which information is available at (a) Humberside, (b) Sheffield, (c) Manchester, (d) Leeds-Bradford, (e) Birmingham International, (f) East Midlands, (g) Newcastle, (h) Liverpool Speke, (i) Luton, (j) Stansted, (k) Heathrow and (l) Gatwick airport. [106999]
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Mr. Mullin: Figures available from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for the numbers of passengers arriving at the following airports by public transport in the last 12-month period reported were:
| Airport | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Humberside | 7 |
| 1998 | Manchester | 10 |
| 1992 | Leeds-Bradford | 2 |
| 1996 | Birmingham | 8 |
| 1992 | East Midlands | 3 |
| 1994 | Newcastle | 8 |
| 1996 | Luton | 14 |
| 1996 | Stansted | 33 |
| 1998 | Heathrow | 32 |
| 1998 | Gatwick | 30 |
The CAA does not hold figures for the numbers of employees arriving at airports by public transport.
For the three airports designated under the Civil Aviation Act 1982 the numbers of complaints about aircraft noise, as recorded by BAA plc in 1999, were:
The Government do not hold information on noise complaints received at other airports, or on the number of residential properties within their 63 dB(A) contours. The populations living within the 63 dB(A) contours at Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds-Bradford airports are reported in "Transport Statistics of Great Britain 1999". The latest data available in each case are:
Heathrow: 8,465
Gatwick: 2,129
Stansted: 6,624.
Information is not held on the number of residential properties within the 63 dB(A) contours at these airports. However, the populations living within the 63 dB(A) contours in 1998 were:
Heathrow: 79,900
Gatwick: 1,500
Stansted: 1,300.
Figures for 1999 are not yet available.
Manchester (1997): 9,500
Birmingham (1998): 16,500
Leeds-Bradford (1995): less than 100.
We are presently carrying out a series of studies looking at the role of regional airports, and in connection with these intend to carry out further work on the noise impact of a number of the larger regional airports.
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