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Strategic Rail Authority Strategic Plan

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what additional private investment is expected under the Strategic Rail Authority Plan between 2001–02 and 2011–12 in addition to the £16 billion in infrastructure enhancement and £7 billion in new trains, referred to on page 25 of the Strategic Rail Authority Strategic Plan. [37523]

Mr. Jamieson: The strategic plan states that the total amount of private sector investment leveraged by this plan is expected to be very similar to that envisaged in the 10-Year Plan.

This investment will cover enhancements to the network, new rolling stock, infrastructure renewals, additional freight infrastructure and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Railtrack

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he expects Railtrack to complete its asset register. [37243]

Mr. Jamieson: In April 2001 the Rail Regulator amended Railtrack's network licence to require the company to create a complete and accurate register of the condition, capacity and capability of its assets. Railtrack is required to produce regular plans detailing how the company expects to ensure it has access to and knowledge

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of its assets. The next set of plans is due to be submitted to the regulator in April 2002, covering development of the register over the next two years.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the answer of 13 February 2002, Official Report, column 376W, on Railtrack, how much public lending is being made available to remunerate these professional advisers. [39418]

Mr. Jamieson: No public lending is being made available.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the answer of 25 February 2002, Official Report, column 783W, on Railtrack, if he will provide an updated schedule of the financial support given to the Railtrack administrator. [39424]

Mr. Jamieson: Approximately £1.8 billion has been made available under the commercial loan agreement.

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the answer of 8 February 2002, Official Report, column 1188W, on Railtrack, what assessment of those examples of companies limited by guarantee listed was carried out by his Department; and if he will place all related documentation in the Library. [40269]

Mr. Jamieson: The outline proposal for a company limited by guarantee (CLG) as a possible successor to Railtrack was developed with regard to the model used for Glas Cymru and a variety of other organisations. No assessment of these organisations was carried out because the model needed to be developed to apply to the particular circumstances of the rail network operator, as outlined in the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Mr. Hendrick) on 23 October 2001, Official Report, columns 195–97W.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the answer of 25 February 2002, Official Report, column 783W, from which budgets or revenue sources additional finance could be granted to Railtrack in an interim review. [40290]

Mr. Jamieson: Neither the outcome of any interim review nor the appropriate budget sources can be anticipated in advance.

London Underground

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what has been the increase in 2000 prices for fares in the London Underground in each of the last 10 years. [37229]

Mr. Spellar: London Underground advise that data covering the complete range of individual ticket types available can be provided only at disproportionate cost. It has, however, produced the following table, which gives the increase in fares, in year 2000 prices, based upon revenue per passenger journey.

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	Revenue per passenger journey at 2000 prices (£)	Percentage change from previous year
1990–91	0.911	—
1991–92	0.945	3.80
1992–93	0.996	5.40
1993–94	1.05	5.40
1994–95	1.108	5.60
1995–96	1.114	0.60
1996–97	1.151	3.30
1997–98	1.165	1.30
1998–99	1.18	1.20
1999–2000	1.175	-0.40
2000–01	1.164	-0.90

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the safety case which the Health and Safety Executive is required to produce for the London Underground PPP when the London Underground is transferred to Transport for London and the Greater London Assembly. [40342]

Mr. Jamieson: Health and Safety Executive (HSE) assesses and considers safety cases for acceptance. It is for London Underground Ltd. to submit to HSE any material revision to its railway safety case that may arise from the transfer of the underground to Transport for London. The HSE has not yet received any revision to this effect.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the terms of reference of the original contract relating to the value for money assessment on the PPP carried out for his Department by Ernst and Young; and whether the contract allowed the specification of the final report to be altered by (a) his Department and (b) Ernst and Young (i) before and (ii) after it was written. [40341]

Mr. Jamieson: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) on 23 November 2001, Official Report, column 493W. The terms of reference referred to in that answer were final and did not change, with the single exception of the deadline by which Ernst and Young were to report. This was necessarily tied to London Underground's own timing on its evaluation of bids.

Housing Benefit

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make it his policy to pay housing benefit for council tenants on the same basis as for tenants of registered social landlords; and if he will make a statement on the reasons for the current arrangements in this regard. [38092]

Ms Keeble: The differences between the financial arrangements for local authorities and registered social landlords are largely a reflection of the fact that council housing finance regime is operated as a national system which seeks to share out the available resources as fairly as possible. We have no plans to change that.

M11 Link Road

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) what applications for compensation arising from the building of

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the M11 Link Road were received by the Highways Agency; how much has been allocated for payment of such compensation; and if he will make a statement; [38997]

(2) how much was allocated to Transport for London to cover compensation commitments of the Highways Agency arising from the building of the M11 Link Road; and if he will make a statement. [38998]

Mr. Jamieson: Papers relating to this scheme have been passed to Transport for London. However, it is unlikely that any claims for compensation for injurious effect by business or residents were received by the Highways Agency, since these must be made between one and six years after completion of the scheme.

The Agency made provision of £19.8 million, over the period 2000–01 to 2004–05, for compensation claims in relation to road schemes transferring to Transport for London. The bulk of this amount related to the Hackney/M11 Link Road.

These estimates were taken into account by Ministers in determining and making provision for GLA transport grant, which is a block grant paid for the purposes of Transport for London.

Traffic

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, what predicted traffic rates over the next (a) five, (b) 10 and (c) 20 years the multi-modal studies are using. [39841]

Mr. Jamieson: The multi-model studies do not use a pre-determined rate of traffic growth. Each study makes its own estimate of how traffic will grow in its study area over the study period. In each case, account is taken of study-specific factors such as changes in the numbers and location of households and workers, the level of current and future congestion, the availability of alternative modes of transport and the implementation of local demand restraint measures.

Bridges (Somerset)

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what grants have been made available to North Somerset council for bridge strengthening and related works in each of the last three years. [38459]

Mr. Jamieson [holding answer 28 February 2002]: The Government are committed to halting the deterioration in local road conditions by 2004 and to eliminating the backlogs in carriageway, footway, bridge and street lighting maintenance by 2010. Over £30 billion for local road maintenance will be provided over the next 10 years, an extra £9 billion (41 per cent.) above the funding levels in the previous 10 years—an increase of 23 per cent. in real terms. This extra money will allow us to tackle the substantial backlog in local road maintenance due to past under-investment.

North Somerset council have received the following grant allocations for highway maintenance and bridge strengthening works over the last three years. The figures for the financial years 2000–01 and 2001–02 have been allocated under the Local Transport Plan process. However

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the allocation given for the preceding year 1999–2000 was administered under the previous Transport Policies and Programmes process.

Highway maintenance and bridge strengthening

Allocation	£000
1999–2000	686
2000–01	895
2001–02	3,173

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