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Passenger Transport
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions whether he intends to establish value for money criteria for allowances paid to PTA members. [44377]
Ms Keeble: Remuneration for PTA members under the Local Government Act 1972 and Local Government and Housing Act 1989 are entirely a matter for local determination.
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Transport Delays
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what recent (a) assessment he has made and (b) research he has commissioned into the cost, in terms of customer and business time and financial impact, of transport delays. [45428]
Mr. Jamieson: The 10-year Plan for Transport made estimates of the amount of time lost on English roads as a result of delays due to congestion in 2000. The Plan made forecasts for 2010 of the increase in congestion and of the extent to which the policies in the Plan would reduce this rise in congestion.
A number of external estimates have also been made of the value road users might place on the elimination of congestion. These use different methods and therefore produce different results, but they all agree that this value runs to billions of pounds per annum.
Neither these external estimates, nor those undertaken by my Department, can be translated directly into assessments of the cost of congestion to business or more widely. This is because they relate only to the amount of time road users lose to congestion and the value of this time to them. They take no account of the costs of implementing the policies or schemes needed to reduce the amount of time lost. The true costs of congestion are therefore the economic and other benefits forgone if we do not tackle it.
We shall be doing further work in this area, the lessons from which we will take into account as part of our Review of the 10 year-Plan which we intend to publish in July.
Transport Costs
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment has been made of (a) past and (b) likely future scenarios of changes in the cost of different modes of transport in the UK to (i) individuals and (ii) households. [45421]
Mr. Jamieson: The most recent published data on past trends in transport costs can be found in "Transport Statistics Great Britain 2001" (tables 1.15 and 1.25) and "Transport Trends 2001" (pages 23 and 41).
Chapter 9 of "Transport 2010", the Government's 10-year plan for transport, contains some general analysis of future transport costs, including illustrative scenarios and their potential impacts. More detail on these scenarios and on the assumptions underlying the 10-year plan is contained in the companion "Background Analysis" document.
Airport Security
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he expects to reply to the letter of 19 November 2001 from the hon. Member for Leominster, concerning airport and baggage security. [45332]
Mr. Spellar: I replied to the hon. Member's letter on 18 December 2001.
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Social Housing
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many (a) local authority dwellings and (b) dwellings owned by registered social landlords (i) were not of a decent standard on 1 April 2001, (ii) will have been brought up to a decent standard by 1 April 2002, and (iii) will not meet the decent standard on 1 April 2002. [43435]
Ms Keeble: We estimate that 1.7 million social homes did not meet the decent home standard at April 2001—about 1.2 million homes local authority homes and 500,000 homes owned by housing associations. These estimates will be updated later this year when the 2001 English House Condition Survey results are available.
Local authorities have plans to reduce their non-decent stock by 12 per cent. between April 2001 and March 2002. This is through a combination of investment in the housing they own and through transfer to housing associations. We do not yet have equivalent figures for dwellings owned by housing associations. The Housing Corporation is working with associations to ensure the 2004 target is met.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what his estimate is of the cost of (a) reducing the number of social dwellings that are not up to a decent standard by one third in the period 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2004 and (b) reducing the number of social dwellings that are not up to a decent standard by 50 per cent. in the period 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2006. [43436]
Ms Keeble: At present we only have estimates for the costs associated with local authority stock. The estimated costs of tackling the capital works outlined above are about £9.5 billion by 2004.
The cost of reducing the number of non-decent homes by one third by 2004 depends on three factors:
- (a) the cost of dealing with those dwellings identified as non-decent at April 2001
- (b) the cost of making homes decent that fall below this standard between 2001 and 2004
- (c) the cost of preventing homes becoming non-decent during the period.
The reduction of non-decent homes in the local authority sector will be achieved through a combination of investment in the local authority stock (through retention, transfer to Arms Length Management Organisations and via resources secured through Private Finance Initiative) and transfer of stock to housing associations.
Currently, no target has been set for the improvement required by 2006. A reduction of 50 per cent. in the number of non-decent LA homes would require investment of about £15 billion, through a combination of investment by local authorities and transfer.
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make it his policy to require local authority housing investment programme returns to record the number of homes which (a) are and (b) are not of a decent standard on the same criteria as set out in the comprehensive spending review. [46109]
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Ms Keeble: Local authorities are already required to provide information on their stock in their Housing Revenue Account business plans, which is part of the Housing Investment Programme.
Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) how many local authority properties released for letting as a result of the cash incentive scheme in each Government office region in England in each of the past four years were (a) bedsits, (b) one-bedroomed , (c) two-bedroomed, (d) three-bedroomed, (e) four-bedroomed and (f) five- bedroomed or more; [44470]
- (2) how many local authority tenants in each Government office in England have applied for a cash incentive scheme grant in each year since 1997–98; and how many of those (a) were offered a grant and (b) used a grant to purchase a property on the open market; [44469]
(3) what was the total value of cash incentive scheme grants made to local authority tenants in each Government office region in England in (a) 1997–98, (b) 1998–99, (c) 1999–2000 and 2000–01. [44468]
Ms Keeble: Information on the numbers and amounts of Cash Incentive Scheme grants made is given in the table. Data are not collected centrally on grant offers made or the types of properties released.
| 1997–98 | 1998–99 | 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of grants made | ||||
| North East | 72 | 17 | — | — |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 98 | 90 | 18 | 6 |
| East Midlands | 280 | 278 | 177 | 12 |
| East of England | 311 | 287 | 120 | 89 |
| London | 2,138 | 1,374 | 630 | 403 |
| South East | 614 | 420 | 195 | 95 |
| South West | 332 | 256 | 94 | 61 |
| West Midlands | 372 | 174 | 52 | 35 |
| North West | 480 | 224 | 15 | 5 |
| England | 4,697 | 3,120 | 1,301 | 706 |
| Total amounts paid (£ million) | ||||
| North East | 0.4 | 0.1 | - | - |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | - |
| East Midlands | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.3 | - |
| East of England | 4.7 | 3.0 | 0.9 | 0.6 |
| London | 35.7 | 23.4 | 8.4 | 8.4 |
| South East | 7.6 | 5.2 | 2.6 | 1.4 |
| South West | 2.7 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| West Midlands | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| North West | 3.0 | 1.7 | 0.1 | — |
| England | 59.3 | 39.1 | 13.2 | 11.0 |
Sources:
1997–98 and 1998–99—CIS monitoring returns
1999–2000 and 2000–01—Housing Investment Programme returns
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many non-decent social dwellings there are in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland. [46220]
Ms Keeble: We estimate that 1.7 million households lived in non-decent social sector dwellings in 2001. This estimate will be updated later this year when the 2001 English House Condition Survey results are available.
The decent home standard applies to housing in England—different standards are used in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) of 12 December 2001, Official Report, column 871W, on rents, if he will provide similar estimates for the real terms percentage changes in each year he predicts for formula rents for council tenants in each local council in England until 2011. [43851]
Ms Keeble: As I said in my earlier answer to the hon. Member, Official Report, column 1004W, the underlying increase in 'formula' rents will be the same for all local authorities.
It is possible to make estimates of how average 'actual' rents might change in real terms between 2001–02 and 2011–12 if the national average local authority formula rent were to increase by an average of about 1.5 per cent. per year, and each local authority were to move its actual average rent to its average formula rent over that period (ignoring the impact of rent caps and the limit on annual rent changes for individual tenants). This was the basis of the figures given to the hon. Member for Hendon on 12 December. I am placing in the Libraries a table giving equivalent figures for all authorities on the same basis.
I must, however, emphasise once more that these figures are only estimates based on a number of assumptions. Ultimately the level of 'actual' local authority rents over the next ten years will depend, among other things, on the outcomes of future spending reviews and the decisions taken by individual local authorities.
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