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20 Jun 2003 : Column 527W—continued

Road Safety

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list (a) improvements in pedestrian and cycling facilities, (b) traffic reduction and calming measures and (c) other local transport schemes which have been pursued as part of (i) Local Strategic Partnerships, (ii) the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and (iii) the New Deal for Communities projects, including in each case details of (A) expenditure allocated by his Department and (B) the total cost of the project, broken down by region. [119135]

Yvette Cooper: The National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (2001) sets out the vision of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for narrowing the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country on the key domains of crime, health, education and skills, worklessness, and housing and the physical environment.

An important element in delivering the strategy is the introduction of floor targets under SR2000. These are National Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets that set a floor or minimum standard so that Whitehall Departments are judged for the first time on the areas they are doing worse rather than on the national average. Under SR2002, Department for Transport (DfT) have signed up to a PSA target on road safety with a floor component:


The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit has been working closely with the DfT on its proposals for tackling road accident casualties in deprived areas. DfT is targeting £17.6 million to those deprived areas with a high number of child pedestrian casualties. Several of these are in Greater Manchester and around. Local authorities will be expected to draw up local strategies to tackle the problem and obtain results in three years. Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and the police will have a stake locally. In these areas, LSPs will play a key role in drawing together all the key agencies from both from the public and voluntary, community and business sectors to deliver decisions and actions that join up

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partners' activities. The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) could be used to support some of the less 'roads' oriented work.

NRF and LSPs

The Spending Review 2000 made available £900 million for NRF (£200 million in 2001–02, £300 million in 2002–03 and £400 million in 2003–04), and an additional £975 million was made available as part of the Spending Review 2002 (£450 million in 2004–05 and £525 million in 2005–06).

NRF can be spent in any way that tackles deprivation in the most deprived neighbourhoods, particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to floor targets and to local targets set out in the Local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy (LNRS) agreed by each of the 87 LSPs (Kerrier and Penwith work together as the west Cornwall LSP). NRF spending plans are therefore determined locally, and the NRF can be used to support not only local authority services, but also those of other organisations, including other members of the LSP. NRF is used primarily to facilitate the bending of mainstream resources to tackle deprivation in the most deprived areas.

Various innovative local transport schemes have been pursued across England as part of the NRF:


Some LSPs have identified access and transport related priority themes when developing their Local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategies (LNRS). For example:





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The specific problems of each NDC neighbourhood are unique, but each NDC partnership looks for outcomes that make a real impact on the people living in their neighbourhood, by tackling five key themes: poor job prospects; high levels of crime; educational under-achievement; poor health; and problems with housing and the physical environment.

As each NDC neighbourhood has different needs, some but not all NDC Partnerships have specific transport projects. One example of such a project is the Shoreditch NDC Partnership, which launched a project called the Shoreditch Hoppa, which is a new local bus serving the NDC neighbourhood. This project has been so successful that it has been mainstreamed by Transport for London.

Rural Housing

Andrew George: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the proportion of affordable homes were in rural areas in each year since 1990. [117989]

Keith Hill: Registered social landlord and local authority dwellings built in England each year since 1990 are in the following table:

Registered social landlord and local authority dwellings as percentage of all new dwellings built
199017
199115
199217
199321
199421
199520
199619
199714
199814
199913
200013
200112
200210

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St. Phillips Place, Birmingham

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister for what purpose his Department has agreed to take a lease of 5 St. Phillip's Place, Birmingham. [118207]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no agreement in place for lease of 5 St. Phillips Place.

World Summit

Mr. Horam: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which United Kingdom commitments arising from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (a) have been incorporated into the Department's existing delivery plan for Service Delivery Agreements and (b) will be incorporated in its delivery plan for Service Delivery Agreements in advance of the 2004 Spending Review. [113879]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is committed to promoting the achievement of sustainable development in the UK, in support of the WSSD commitments, through a range of policies and programmes. We have published the Sustainable Communities Plan, held an 'Urban Summit' and will be holding a 'Better Buildings' Summit later this year. All of these have sustainable development at their core. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Delivery Agreements relating to sustainable communities, sustainable regional economic growth, the provision of decent housing and action to promote neighbourhood renewal and reduce social exclusion, are all in support of successive sustainable development aims and commitments. In addition, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister supports the Government's aim of sustainable development in specific areas, for example, promoting energy efficiency in buildings as part of the Government's Energy White Paper and in areas set out in the Memorandum submitted to the Environmental Audit Committee.

We cannot at this stage pre-empt the arrangements for the 2004 Spending Review, though we will continue to ensure that sustainable development is at the heart of the work of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.