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Lincolnshire County Council

Gillian Merron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions whether the National Standards Board is investigating complaints about the establishment of a local standards committee by Lincolnshire county council; and if he will make a statement. [22216]

Dr. Whitehead [holding answer 11 December 2001]: The Standards Board is not investigating the matter. However, I understand that the Chairman of the Standards Board has written to the Chief Executive of Lincolnshire asking the council's views regarding the composition of its standards committee.

London Underground

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will give the total investment in the core London Underground infrastructure in each year since 1990–91; and if he will give an estimate for 2001–02. [22701]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Keith Hill) to the hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) on 8 May 2001, Official Report, column 23W. The actual level of investment in 2000–01 was set out in London Transport's annual report 2000–01, published in July of this year.

London Underground has been set a target of delivering total investment expenditure of at least £410 million in 2001–02.

18 Dec 2001 : Column: 222W

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the comparative international data available to London Underground as a result of their membership of the CoMet group of international metros. [22758]

Mr. Jamieson: This is a matter for London Underground (LU) which is a member of CoMet. I am advised by LU that all members of CoMet are required to sign a written confidentiality agreement; information between operators within the group is exchanged on a confidential basis.

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 3 December 2001, Official Report, columns 14–15W, if his Department (a) is testing and (b) has asked Ernst and Young to test alternative discount rates for the London Underground PPP; and if he has asked Ernst and Young to conduct Monte Carlo simulations as an element of their robustness assessment. [23270]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 5 November 2001, Official Report, column 10W. Ernst and Young's terms of reference are available in the Libraries of the House.

Cherished Number Plates

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how the income generated by the sale of cherished plates is distributed among (a) Government Departments and (b) nations and regions of the United Kingdom. [22771]

Mr. Jamieson: After the administrative costs of running the Sale of Marks Scheme have been met, the remaining receipts are paid to the Exchequer to be allocated to spending programmes in line with the Government priorities for public services.

Rough Sleepers Unit

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what plans the rough sleepers unit has to improve support and services provided during the day for street homeless people. [22982]

Ms Keeble: The RSU has already invested over £2 million from its Special Innovation Fund to put in place education, training and employment schemes around the country that have helped over 2,500 former rough sleepers to make the move to independent living.

The RSU has also funded the development of a website showing employment, advice and training resources available for homeless people in London and is working with Business Action on Homelessness and the Employment Service to deliver tailored solutions to help former rough sleepers back into employment.

This work is backed up by 23 Tenancy Sustainment Teams (TSTs) in areas across England that give former rough sleepers the help they need to keep their new home and to route former rough sleepers into education, training and employment.

18 Dec 2001 : Column: 223W

The Unit also funds a range of day centres around the country and has developed 10 learning zones linked to hostels and day centres to provide work based training in businesses, to help former rough sleepers back into paid employment.

In the future the new Homelessness Directorate of the DTLR will ensure that schemes that rebuild the lives of former rough sleepers will help to sustain the reductions already made in rough sleeping since 1998.

Rents (London)

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many properties (a) in London as a whole and (b) in each London borough have rents above the relevant rent cap for their size; and what percentage these properties represent of the relevant categories of housing stock in both local authority and RSL sectors. [23078]

Ms Keeble: Estimates based on the 1996 English House Condition Survey (the latest suitable data available) suggest that in London as a whole around 30,000 local authority properties and 15,000 RSL properties currently have rents above the relevant rent cap for their size. These properties represent around 5 per cent. of the local authority housing stock and 7 per cent. of the RSL stock in London in 1996. We expect the number of properties with rents above the relevant cap to be reduced by rent restructuring. We do not have equivalent information at an individual London borough level.

Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many RSL tenants in (a) Battersea and (b) Wandsworth (i) pay rent above £100 per week and (ii) would have their rent reduced under rent restructuring in April 2002. [22947]

Ms Keeble: The information is not available. To avoid excessive administrative burden, information is not collected centrally on the rents of individual properties owned by local authorities and RSLs. Moreover, individual landlords retain responsibility for rent-setting.

Rent Restructuring

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the oral statement of 5 December 2001, Official Report, column 136WH, (a) how he has calculated his assessment that the rents of one council tenant in five will fall under his rent restructuring proposals, (b) what assessment he has made of the regional variations in this figure and (c) what proportion of tenants in RSL properties he estimates will see a fall in real term rents as a result of his policies. [23077]

Ms Keeble: (a) The assessment that the rents of one council tenant in five will fall in real terms under our restructuring proposals was an estimate based upon modelling using the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) database.

(b) Estimates from the EHCS database suggest that the proportion of council tenants whose rents fall in real terms varies from around one in 15 in Yorkshire and the Humber to almost one in three in London.

18 Dec 2001 : Column: 224W

(c) We expect the proportion of tenants in RSL properties who see a fall in rents in real terms as a result of our policies to be somewhat higher than that of council tenants.

For both sectors the actual figure will depend upon the rent-setting decisions of individual landlords.

West Coast Main Line

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 5 December 2001, Official Report, column 383W, on the west coast main line, whether the Government have given financial guarantees to an organisation in relation to the Hartwell agreement on (a) the west coast main line and (b) the Virgin cross country franchise; what is the total cost estimated by the Strategic Rail Authority for the Virgin cross country franchise upgrade; and how dependent this upgrade is on (i) completion of Phase I west coast main line upgrade and (ii) Phase 2 west coast main line upgrade. [22796]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 13 December 2001]: The Government have given no financial guarantees in relation to the Hartwell agreement. Financial support to the cross country franchise is set out in the annual report of the Strategic Rail Authority, which was placed in the Library of the House in July. Various enhancements of the cross country route have been undertaken by Railtrack; the costs are a matter for Railtrack. Improvements to journey times for cross country trains operating on the west coast main line are dependent on work to be carried out by Railtrack which will permit 125 mph operation with tilting trains at certain locations.

Planning Applications

Ms Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many planning applications were called in by him in the last 12 months. [23688]

Ms Keeble: 127 planning applications were called in in the last financial year (1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001).

Ms Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what percentage of planning applications served with an article 14 holding direction have been subsequently called in by him in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [23687]

Ms Keeble: 29 per cent. of the planning applications subject to an Article 14 Direction during the last financial year (1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001) were subsequently called in.

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