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3 Nov 2003 : Column 503W—continued

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Access Officers

Brian Cotter: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many local authorities employ an access officer; how many do not; and if he will make a statement. [135387]

Mr. Raynsford: The information requested is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Under the Disabilities Discrimination Act 1995 local authorities, as service providers, have to consider making reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver their services so that disabled people can use them. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will be initiating some research next year to assess local government's performance in meeting the needs of people with disabilities and ensuring that people with disabilities have full access to services.

Area Investment Frameworks

Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the Area Investment Frameworks which have been set up. [134790]

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Yvette Cooper: There are 10 Area Investment Frameworks in development in the South East. They coincide with the Priority Regeneration Areas agreed by the Region in producing and implementing the Regional Economic Strategy and comprise:


Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much funding has been granted to Area Investment Frameworks in Sussex; and from what sources. [134791]

Yvette Cooper: Funds are currently focused on development of the Area Investment Frameworks (AIF). The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) provided £220,000 for delivery of the four AIFs in Sussex a figure matched by other publicly funded bodies. In future years it is intended that AIFs will guide existing expenditure of a wide range of publicly funded bodies.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many people work for Area Investment Frameworks in Sussex. [134793]

Yvette Cooper: Area Investment Frameworks do not have employees as this is a process rather than a structure.

Arm's-length Management

Mr. Dobson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the impact on public finances of money invested in housing refurbishment by (a) an arms length management organisation and (b) a council housing department. [135909]

Keith Hill: In 2002–03 local authorities invested around £2.5 billion in investment and maintenance of housing from their own resources and funds provided by Central Government.

The resource provided for Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) is additional to the resource that the local authority receives through mainstream housing funding.

The Sustainable Communities Plan published in February announced that for 2003–04 to 2005–06, about £2 billion of additional investment is being made available to councils who set up acceptable arms length arrangements which deliver services which are rated as excellent (3*) or good (2*) by the Housing Inspectorate. This is in addition to the support given in 2002–03 of about £56 million.

Building Regulations

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the impact of regulations on the building industry on balancing demand and supply

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in the housing market; and what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry regarding regulation of the building industry. [121445]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is currently considering the balance of regulation regarding the housing market and is taking into account the views of other Government Departments and looking forward to the conclusions reached by the Barker Review of Housing Supply.

Citizens Advice Bureaux

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much funding the Government have provided to citizens advice bureaux in each of the last 10 years; what steps he is taking to ensure that the Citizens Advice Bureaux network is resourced to provide services to citizens excluded from conventional financial advice; and what recent discussions he has had with local authorities about the level of funding to citizens advice bureaux. [135874]

Phil Hope: This Government value highly the contribution that citizens advice bureaux (CABx) make to local communities. We believe that these services are best provided in a way which ensures that they meet the needs of the local community. Decisions about grant funding for individual CABx are therefore for the relevant local authority to make in the light of local priorities. The Local Government Finance Settlement 2003–04 provided local authorities with some £43 billion of general grant; this is an increase of 25 per cent. in real terms since 1997. In addition to this the Department for Trade and Industry provides funding for the national organisation of citizens advice directly.

I have not had any recent discussions with local authorities about the level of funding for citizens advice bureaux.

Council Housing

Mr. Purchase: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what proportion of capital expenditure invested in local authority owned homes is supported by direct Government grant, where the homes are managed by (a) the local authority and (b) an arm's length management organisation; [135195]

Keith Hill: Housing Revenue Account (HRA) subsidy is calculated for each authority taking account of actual interest costs incurred on borrowing to finance approved capital investment in housing, plus an amount that each authority currently has to set aside to repay the principal. Nationally, the average amount met by HRA subsidy in 2002–03 was some £1.6 billion, 10 per cent. of outstanding borrowing. Arms length management organisations (ALMOs) in Rounds 1 and 2 of the programme are also eligible for additional HRA subsidy, currently calculated at a flat rate of 10 per cent. of assumed additional capital investment by the ALMO. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has proposed

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that these flat rate arrangements, which were designed to provide incentives to authorities setting up the first ALMOs, will be harmonised for future years and brought into line with the normal arrangements for supporting capital investment in housing, based on actual interest rates.

Departmental Costs

Mr. Flight: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the cost was to his Department for (a) ministerial cars and drivers, (b) taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997. [123077]

Yvette Cooper: With regards to the cost of ministerial cars and drivers I refer the hon. Member to the letter sent by Nick Matheson, the Chief Executive of the Government Car and Despatch Agency on 17 September 2003.

The Government annually publishes the overall costs of all ministerial overseas travel that includes cost of train tickets, airline tickets, use of helicopters and cost of planes chartered for ministerial travel. The next list for the period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 will be published at the end of the financial year.

The information regarding the remaining parts of the question is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate costs.

Elliott Review

Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what account was taken of the Elliott Review of the Area Cost Adjustment when deciding to use the New Earnings Survey to calculate wage rates. [135650]

Phil Hope: The Government use the new earnings survey (NES) for the area cost adjustment (ACA). The NES is the best data for the purpose because it is drawn from a 1 per cent. sample of everyone in employment, a far larger sample survey than the main possible alternative the labour force survey (LFS).

The Elliott review recommended that the LFS should be used as the data source for the ACA. This was on the grounds that the LFS includes data on the educational attainment of survey participants. However detailed occupation data is included in the NES. A report by the Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER) concluded that the use of the NES for calculating the ACA does not result in any significant bias as a consequence of the inability to standardise for education, because of the detailed information on the occupation and industry of survey participants contained in the NES.

Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many staff there are, and what the annual running cost in 2003–04 is, of each of the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders in England; and if he will make a statement. [134610]

Yvette Cooper: Currently each pathfinder has the following numbers of staff supporting scheme development and delivery co-ordination; Birmingham

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Sandwell (seven full-time and four part-time); East Lancashire (three full-time); Humberside (five full-time); Manchester Salford (nine full-time and seven part-time); Merseyside (four full-time); South Yorkshire (10 full-time); Newcastle (nine full-time and one part-time); North Staffs (six full-time); Oldham Rochdale (four full-time and seven part-time).

Annual running costs in 2003–04 are not yet available. All pathfinders will be using the part of the £2.66 million allocated for preparation of their strategic schemes. Running costs will vary from pathfinder to pathfinder depending on when the schemes are agreed and large-scale implementation begins.

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