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Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 10 February 2000
ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS
Common Land
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has for reviewing the legislation affecting common land and town and village greens. [110027]
Mr. Meacher: I have today published a consultation paper on common land--"Greater Protection and Better Management of Common Land in England and Wales". The paper looks at three key areas: issues concerning the registration of common land and village greens; the consent regime for fencing and other works; and wider management issues. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House. I have invited comments on the paper by 10 April.
Greater London Authority
Mr. Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what will be the cost of the new building for the Greater London Authority; and if the rent will be at the market rate for similar buildings. [110064]
Mr. Hill: We have reached agreement with the developer, CIT Group, on a rent of £36.50 per square foot, £393 per square metre. This is frozen until 2007. The fixed rent at practical completion of the contract will be £4.75 million per annum. There are no similar buildings in the area; however, the £36.50 compares favourably with current rents, for top quality space in prime locations, of typically around £50 per square foot in the City and the West End of London. The developer will meet the cost of the base building which is estimated at around £40 million.
Traffic Congestion
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what studies his Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned which quantify the cost to the economy of traffic congestion. [108329]
Mr. Hill: My Department has not commissioned estimates of the costs of congestion from external sources. A number of external estimates have been made of the value road users might place on the elimination of congestion from the road network. The CBI have put this figure at £15 billion. Some estimates are lower, but agree that the figure runs into billions every year and is rising.
The Department has made estimates of the amount of time lost on English roads as a result of congestion in 1996 and produced forecasts for 2010 under a number of illustrative scenarios. The results of this work are set out
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in our report "Tackling Congestion and Pollution", published last month. We will be doing more work in this area as part of our follow up to that report.
Neither the external estimates, nor those undertaken by my Department, can be translated directly into assessments of the cost of congestion to the economy. This is because they relate only to the benefits road users might derive from reduced delays and take no account of the costs of achieving these reductions. The true costs of road congestion to the economy are the net benefits we forgo if we fail to tackle it.
Mr. Mitchell:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions who determines the areas in respect of which bids can be made by water supply companies based outside the area served by an existing company; and, in the event of a successful bid, which company retains (a) ownership of water pipes and (b) responsibility for their maintenance. [108741]
Mr. Mullin:
A company can be appointed as a water undertaker or sewerage undertaker by the Director General of Water Services under the Water Industry Act 1991. There is no restriction on the areas in respect of which appointments may be sought within England and Wales. A water company may seek to become the supplier for any area within that of another company by means of an 'inset' appointment: where that company consents to the appointment; where the appointment is in respect of parts of that area where none of the premises is served by that company; or where it is in respect of an area occupied by premises, each of which is supplied with, or likely to be supplied with, not less than 250 megalitres of water in any year. Ownership of water pipes and responsibility for their maintenance rests with the company holding the appointment for the area in question.
The Competition Act 1998 comes into effect on 1 March, providing potential opportunities for greater competition. The Office of Fair Trading and Office of Water Services have issued guidance on the application of the 1998 Act to the water and sewerage sectors. If shared use of a water undertaker's network is agreed, ownership and responsibility for maintenance would remain with the undertaker, but with arrangements for sharing the costs between the two companies.
Mr. Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to encourage industrial users of (a) kerosene and (b) gas oil to switch to cleaner fuels. [108712]
Mr. Hill:
Under the Marketing of Gas Oil regulations 1994, the sulphur content of gas oil marketed in the UK is limited to 0.2 per cent. The Sulphur Content of Certain Liquid Fuels Directive (1999/32/EC), due to be transposed into member states legislation on 1 July 2000, will prohibit the use of gas oil with a sulphur content higher than 0.2 per cent. from 1 July 2000 and 0.1 per cent. from 1 January 2008.
The combustion of kerosene and gas oil in industrial processes above 20 Megawatts thermal input is regulated under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Over the past decade the Environment Agency has encouraged
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operators of the processes they regulate under the Act to switch to less polluting fuels, initially from heavy fuel oil to gas oil, and then (over the last few years) to gas. For example, most gas turbines now use gas as their main fuel with gas oil or kerosene only as a backup in case of an interruption to the gas supply. The Environment Agency will continue to encourage these changes to cleaner fuels.
Mr. Bob Russell:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to fund further tram or light railway systems; and if he will make a statement. [108725]
Mr. Hill:
Central Government support is available to local authorities to fund light rapid transit systems in the form of grant under section 56 of the Transport Act 1968. Revenue support is provided through the local government finance system to meet the cost of borrowing undertaken by authorities to finance capital expenditure on major transport schemes and for eligible expenditure on local authority Private Finance Initiative projects.
Mr. Bob Russell:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what research his Department has undertaken into the benefits of tram/light railway systems (a) in the UK and (b) in other European Union countries; and if he will make a statement. [108726]
Mr. Hill:
My Department has contributed to studies on the impact of Manchester Metrolink, South Yorkshire Supertram and Croydon Tramlink. Reports on Manchester Metrolink and South Yorkshire Supertram have now been completed. The Department has also funded a report into light rail and complementary measures, which covers European systems. This was published in May 1998. A follow-up study is being undertaken. Copies of the completed reports have been placed in the Library.
Mr. Cotter:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what data he collects from local authorities on the proportions of invoices paid by them within the agreed contract time. [109049]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
Under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1999, authorities will be required to report annually their performance against specified national performance indicators. An indicator is included in respect of the percentage of undisputed invoices paid within 30 days, or mutually agreed terms. The Secretary of State has set targets for such payment of invoices of 95 per cent. for 2000-01, 97.5 per cent. for 2001-02 and 100 per cent. for 2002-03.
Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what resources are available to his Department to make one-off payments to cover overhanging debt following the transfer of local authority housing stock in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01 and (c) 2001-02. [109102]
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Mr. Mullin:
There are proposals within the Spring Supplementary Estimates to allow for £25 million to assist with the repayment of overhanging debt in the current financial year. The sum required in future years will depend on Ministers' decisions in response to applications for a place on the housing transfer programme from local authorities with overhanging debt. The Government's contribution to extinguishing overhanging debt will be by taking on an agreed amount of a local authority's outstanding debt principal, rather than through the use of programme resources.
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