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Housing
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he plans to publish the Housing Green Paper. [111661]
Mr. Mullin: We will publish a Housing Green Paper this year aimed at ensuring everyone has the opportunity of a decent home. The Green Paper will be fully consultative and we hope as many people as possible will take the opportunity to let us know what they think of our proposals on the future of housing in the 21st century.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what proportion of heads of non-pensioner households in (a) social housing and (b) private rented housing were not in paid work in each region in (i) 1996-97, (ii) 1997-98 and (iii) 1998-99. [111517]
Mr. Mullin:
The following table provides the available estimates from the Labour Force Survey of the percentage by region of heads of household who were below pensionable age and not in paid work.
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| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Social rented | Private rented | Social rented | Private rented | Social rented | Private rented |
| North East | 66 | n/a | 64 | (2)51 | 63 | n/a |
| North West (including Merseyside) | 66 | 47 | 64 | 47 | 64 | 48 |
| Yorks and Humber | 58 | 40 | 60 | 41 | 57 | 40 |
| East Midlands | 58 | 42 | 58 | 33 | 57 | 34 |
| East Midlands | 61 | 37 | 56 | 31 | 55 | 33 |
| East | 53 | 35 | 49 | 27 | 45 | 27 |
| London | 63 | 40 | 59 | 36 | 56 | 36 |
| South East | 48 | 34 | 51 | 27 | 49 | 25 |
| South West | 55 | 34 | 53 | 30 | 53 | 30 |
| England | 60 | 39 | 58 | 35 | 56 | 34 |
(1) Estimates from the Labour Force Survey Spring and Autumn Quarters. The figures are subject to sampling variability.
(2) Three years data have been combined to give reliable estimates for the private rented sector in the North East to overcome sample size limitation. Thus an average for 1996, 1997, and 1998 is shown under 1997. This calculation is not possible for 1996-97.
28 Feb 2000 : Column: 9W
Birmingham Northern Relief Road
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what the anticipated liability is of the Highways Agency with respect to blight and compulsory purchase of property, associated with the proposed Birmingham Northern Relief Road; and what the basis is for that calculation. [111690]
Mr. Hill: The Highways Agency is responsible for the purchase of land under blight and compulsory purchase provisions, and it retains the ownership of all land and properties needed for the BNRR scheme. All the costs that the Highways Agency so incurs will be fully reimbursed by the concessionaire, Midland Expressway Limited.
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will provide an itemised estimate of the cost to the public purse of widening the M42 section of the proposed Birmingham Northern Relief Road. [111691]
Mr. Hill: A previous estimate for the Department's share of the reconstruction costs for widening the M42 near Water Orton was £20 million. That was a preliminary estimate at an early stage in the design process, and it has since been revised. A fixed sum of £18 million has now been agreed with MEL.
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what the annual liability is of (a) the Highways Agency and (b) other Government departments to the private sector, including Midland Expressway, for any delays in the construction of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road and associated work caused by the Highways Agency or other Government departments; and what is the basis of such calculations. [111676]
Mr. Hill: There are no such liabilities.
M25
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will estimate the cost of resurfacing the M25 between junctions 8 and 10 in porous asphalt. [111815]
Mr. Hill: I have asked the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, Mr. Peter Nutt, to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Nutt to Mr. Crispin Blunt, dated 28 February 2000:
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions has asked me to reply to your recent question about the estimated cost of resurfacing the M25 between junctions 8 and 10 in porous asphalt.
We estimate that it would cost in the region of £14m to resurface this section of road using porous asphalt. This estimate excludes a 3 ½km section in the Leatherhead/Ashtead area at junction 9, which is already surfaced with porous asphalt.
Funding Inequalities (Education)
Mr. Coaker:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what recent discussions he has had with Education Ministers with
28 Feb 2000 : Column: 10W
respect to inequalities in the levels of funding per pupil between different local education authorities across the country; and if he will make a statement. [111971]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
My right hon. Friend has had a number of discussions with Education Ministers on a range of issues relating to the financing of education. The distribution of grant is the subject of a review, announced in our White Paper, "Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People". We expect to publish a consultation paper in the summer.
Mr. Crausby:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the level of heavy goods transport on the roads. [112319]
Mr. Hill:
The latest available figures are for 1998 when heavy goods vehicles travelled 32 billion vehicle kilometres in Great Britain, accounting for 7 per cent. of all motor traffic. During the same period, 152 billion tonne-kilometres of freight were moved, and 1,630 million tonnes of freight were lifted, by heavy goods vehicles.
Mrs. Dunwoody:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list (a) the number, (b) the length of contracts, (c) the details of the service involved and (d) the location of contracts entered into by his Department with Serco. [111784]
| Title | Scope | End date |
|---|---|---|
| National Weedspray Services | Weed spray of the national rail network | Ended |
| Major Station Cleaning Contract | Cleaning of 14 major stations | April-June 2000 |
| Rail Property Maintenance RT99 | Maintenance of property in the north of England and in parts of Wales | July 2000 |
| On-Track Infrastructure Monitoring Services | Operation of several instrumental train combinations running across the national network collecting data on the rail infrastructure | April 2001 |
| Infrastructure Maintenance Contract | Maintenance of Railtrack's infrastructure in the east Midlands | Award imminent from 1 April 2000 for 5 years |
Eurostar
Mr. Kidney:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what consultations he intends to hold, and with which interested parties, on the consultants report into the viability of Eurostar Services north of London. [111808]
28 Feb 2000 : Column: 11W
Mr. Hill:
None. The consultants consulted widely with local and regional authorities and groups. It is for the British Railways Board now to consider the report as part of its review of its plan for international through services.
Mr. Kidney:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will abolish the requirement on local authorities to hold annual local consultation meetings with business rates payers; [111794]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
We will be considering the future of the consultation duty under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as we develop proposals on the local authority-business partnership arrangements that will be required before local authorities can raise a supplementary local rate. Policy on this was set out in the 1998 White Paper "Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People". We shall be consulting further on the details before introducing the necessary legislation.
In considering the future of the existing duty, we will also be taking account of the findings of the research into the duty published by the Department of Environment "Local Partnerships--A Research Review of Local Authorities' Statutory Duties to Consult with Business" (1997). In addition, we will also be making use of research commissioned by this Department, which is to be published shortly, about business perceptions of local government and local government involvement with the business community.
Mr. Pike:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will institute regular consultations between his Department, local authorities and business rates payers regarding national non-domestic rates. [111795]
Ms Beverley Hughes:
We hold meetings periodically with representative business organisations, at which the Local Government Association is represented, to discuss matters of concern to ratepayers.
My right hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government and the Regions chaired a meeting on 7 September to discuss how to handle the effects of the non-domestic rate revaluation this April. The review group, which we established last month to consider how the revaluation system can be improved, includes representatives from the Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Local Government Association, as well as officials from this and other Departments, the National Assembly for Wales and the Valuation Office Agency. There are also regular ad hoc contacts at official level.
This system of consultation works well, and we intend to continue with it.
(2) what assessment he has made of the usefulness of the compulsory annual local consultation meetings between local authorities and business rates payers regarding national non-domestic rates. [111793]
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