---

Home Valuations

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the impact upon home purchasers of the practice of district valuers reviewing the effect of improvements on value only after a sale takes place. [64375]

Mr. Raynsford: Dwellings are only revalued following improvements when the property is subsequently sold. This is so that people are not deterred from improving their home because their council tax might increase. The reassessment may lead to a property being moved to a higher council tax band. However, this is not always the case. No assessment has been made of the impact upon home purchaser.

Social Housing Targets

Mr. Hopkins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has made to meet the 2010 social housing targets if tenants vote against large scale voluntary stock transfers; and if he will make a statement. [64391]

Mr. McNulty: The Government have substantially increased the resources provided to local authorities for housing investment to support delivery of the commitment on decent social housing. Where an authority is unable to fund the works necessary to bring its housing up to a decent standard by 2010 from its own resources and those provided through the Major Repairs Allowance and the Housing Investment Programme, there are three options for additional funding:

transfer the housing to a housing association which can access private finance;


qualify for additional funding by establishing a high performing arms length management organisation;


acquire additional resources through the Private Finance Initiative.

The planned ending of direct control of local authority borrowing will also allow increased investment where an authority can meet the additional borrowing costs.

It is for local authorities to decide with their tenants which investment option to pursue and we have extended the role of the Community Housing Task Force to help them with this. If stock transfer is rejected by tenants, then clearly the authority needs to consider which of the other options will enable it to deliver.

Right to Buy

Chris Grayling: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether housing associations retain funds raised as a result of the exercising of the right to buy. [65672]

4 Jul 2002 : Column 563W

Mr. McNulty: The right to buy can be exercised only by those few housing association tenants who are secure tenants of non-charitable housing associations. Any sale proceeds that remain after the deduction of expenses, outstanding loan debt and the recovery of any grant for the original provision of the property, may be retained and spent on purposes permitted by legislation for an association registered with the Housing Corporation.

Former local authority tenants of housing stock that has been transferred to registered social landlords retain a Preserved Right to Buy. The transfer arrangements will normally contain a sharing agreement aimed at giving the local authority a share of sales receipts.

Tenants of registered social landlord properties built or acquired with public funds since 1 April 1997 have a right to acquire their rented home under the Housing Act 1996. The Housing Corporation provides the registered social landlord with a grant to cover the discount offered to the tenant for right to acquire sales and the landlord retains all proceeds of such disposals. The legislation requires the proceeds to be placed in a separate fund—the Disposal Proceeds Fund—and the Housing Corporation directs the registered social landlord to use the proceeds to provide replacement housing for rent.

Equity Release Schemes

Mr. Martlew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to promote equity release schemes to assist with disrepair in the owner-occupied housing sector. [65720]

Mr. McNulty: The Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) (England and Wales) Order 2002 was approved by Parliament on 28 May and will come into force very shortly. It will allow local authorities to develop equity release schemes for housing renewal. This Order contains a new power enabling local authorities to provide assistance to owner-occupiers for the repair, improvement or adaptation of their properties. Such assistance can be provided in a variety of ways including grants, loans or equity release schemes. It replaces the powers contained in the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 which allowed local authorities to make renovation grants available to homeowners.

Empty Homes

Mr. Pike: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he will announce the money being allocated to Burnley to tackle the problem of empty homes as part of the East Lancashire Housing Renewal pathfinder project. [65551]

Mr. Raynsford: We announced on 16 May that we were making available £25 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund to assist low demand pathfinder projects in vital preparatory work, in equal shares of £2.66 million (£1 million will be retained centrally for collective monitoring and evaluation). That funding will, importantly, not be distributed to individual local authorities but to the pathfinder project as a whole. We are considering the case for further investment to tackle low demand, over and above that which local authorities and others already devote to tackling the problem, in the spending review.

4 Jul 2002 : Column 564W

Fire Brigades Union

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he last met representatives from the Fire Brigades Union; what was discussed; and if he will make a statement. [65994]

Mr. Raynsford: Responsibility for the Fire Service transferred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on 29 May 2002. The Deputy Prime Minister has not met with representatives of the Fire Brigades Union.

Refurbishment

Ms Walley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the refurbishment projects that (a) are in progress and (b) will start within the next six months; and what action is being taken to ensure that these will procure certified timber. [59764]

Mr. Alexander: I have been asked to reply.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Oldham, West and Royton (Mr. Meacher) set out the Government's policy on timber procurement in his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet (Colin Burgon) on 28 July 2000, Official Report, column 948W.

The Ripley Building and Kirkland House are currently being refurbished by the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office is working closely with Balfour Beatty, the main contractor, to seek to ensure that all timber for this project, that has not yet been ordered, is procured in accordance with that policy. A full investigation into timber procurement matters on this project has been undertaken by the Cabinet Office. A report of the findings of the investigation is due to be published shortly.

As part of some wider electrical and rewiring and redecoration works under way in Admiralty House, one new hardwood timber door is being procured. This is being procured from an independently-certified sustainable source.

In May 2002 the Cabinet Office entered into a private finance initiative contract with Initial Style Conferences Ltd. (ISC) for a rolling programme of construction and refurbishment works to the Sunningdale Park estate. The terms of the contract require ISC to purchase timber or timber products which are compliant with the Government's policy on timber procurement relevant at the time. The Cabinet Office will provide the details of the timber procurement policy relevant at any particular time and work with ISC to ensure their compliance with it.

The refurbishment of the National Crises Management Centre is due to commence within the next six months. The contract specification for this will include a clause stating that all timber used in the project should be procured in accordance with the Government's policy on timber procurement current at the time. The Cabinet Office will be responsible for providing details of the policy to the contractor and will work with them to help ensure their compliance with it.

Ombudsman System

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to bring forward legislation to reform the ombudsman system. [63978]

4 Jul 2002 : Column 565W

Mr. Alexander: I have been asked to reply.

The Government have made clear that they intend to bring forward legislation to replace the existing arrangements with a more unified ombudsman body when parliamentary time allows.

Fire Stations

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many fire stations have been (a) opened and (b) closed since 1995. [65521]

4 Jul 2002 : Column 566W

Mr. Raynsford: Based on annual returns to HM Fire Service Inspectorate, the number of fire stations in each fire authority area in England and Wales at 1 January for each year from 1995 to 2002 is set out in the table. On the basis of these returns, 10 fire stations have opened and 14 closed since 1 January 1995. However, these figures do not reflect instances where the opening of a fire station is balanced by the closure of another in the same fire authority within the same calendar year.

Number of fire stations in England and Wales at 1 January 1995–1 January 2002

Brigade name	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Avon	23	23	23	23	23	23	23	23
Bedfordshire	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14
Buckinghamshire	22	22	20	20	20	20	20	20
Cambridgeshire	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28
Cheshire	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
Cleveland	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Cornwall	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	31
County Durham and Darlington	17	17	16	15	15	15	15	15
Cumbria	38	38	38	38	38	38	38	38
Derbyshire	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	31
Devon	58	58	58	58	58	58	58	58
Dorset	26	26	29	29	29	29	29	30
East Sussex	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
Essex	51	51	51	51	51	51	51	51
Gloucestershire	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20
Greater Manchester	44	43	43	43	43	43	43	43
Hampshire	55	55	54	54	54	54	52	52
Hereford and Worcester	26	26	26	26	26	26	26	27
Hertfordshire	32	32	32	32	32	32	32	32
Humberside	31	31	31	31	31	31	31	32
Isle of Wight	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Isles of Scilly	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
Kent	66	66	66	66	66	66	66	66
Lancashire	40	40	40	40	40	40	40	40
Leicestershire	19	20	20	20	20	20	20	20
Lincolnshire	37	37	37	37	37	37	38	38
London	113	113	113	113	113	113	112	112
Merseyside	27	27	27	27	27	26	26	26
Mid and West Wales	60	60	57	57	57	57	57	57
Norfolk	40	40	40	40	40	40	40	40
North Wales	44	44	44	44	44	44	44	44
North Yorkshire	37	37	37	37	37	37	37	37
Northamptonshire	22	22	22	22	22	22	22	22
Northumberland	19	19	19	19	19	19	19	19
Nottinghamshire	25	25	25	25	25	25	25	25
Oxfordshire	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
Royal Berkshire	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20
Shropshire	23	23	23	23	23	23	23	23
Somerset	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
South Wales	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50
South Yorkshire	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
Staffordshire	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	30
Suffolk	36	36	36	36	36	36	36	36
Surrey	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
Tyne and Wear	18	18	18	19	19	19	19	19
Warwickshire	20	20	20	20	20	19	19	19
West Midlands	41	41	41	41	41	41	41	41
West Sussex	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28
West Yorkshire	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50
Wiltshire	24	25	25	25	25	25	25	25
Total	1,612	1,613	1,609	1,609	1,609	1,607	1,605	1,608

Source:

ODPM calendar year returns

4 Jul 2002 : Column 567W

---