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Ex-service Personnel (Housing)

Mr. Weir: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what guidance his Department has given to local authorities relating to the rights of persons leaving the armed forces to be included in council house waiting lists on conclusion of their service in the area in which they last served. [138220]

Keith Hill: As the hon. Member will be aware, housing is a devolved matter.

The Code of Guidance on the Allocation of Accommodation which was issued to English housing authorities in November 2002 and came into force at the end of January 2003 states that housing authorities must consider all applications and cannot exclude applicants who, for example, are not currently resident in the district. However, the Code of Guidance makes clear that, in determining relative priorities for an allocation, authorities are able to have regard to whether or not applicants have a local connection with the district. The Code of Guidance does refer specifically to the rights of persons leaving the armed forces to be included in council waiting lists.

Housing

Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much was spent by each local authority planning Large Scale Voluntary Transfer; and whether this expenditure was within the guidelines set by the Department in each case. [138680]

Keith Hill: The information requested is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps his Department is taking to ensure that section 106 agreements between local authorities and housing associations do not provide a perverse

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financial incentive to develop one and two bedroom properties at the expense of three and four bedroom properties. [138588]

Keith Hill: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 6 November 2003, Official Report, columns 796–97W.

Linda Perham: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what plans he has to ensure that housing advice reaches older people from ethnic minorities; [136657]

(2) what plans he has to develop proactive services for giving older people housing advice. [136658]

Yvette Cooper: Section 179 of the Housing Act 1996 requires local housing authorities to ensure that advice and information about homelessness and the prevention of homelessness is available free of charge to anyone in their district. The Homelessness Code of Guidance, to which local authorities must have regard by law, states that advisory services need to be accessible to everyone in the district, and well publicised. The Code also states that authorities need to monitor the provision of advisory services to ensure they continue to meet the needs of all sections of the community.

In addition, the Homelessness Act 2002 requires local housing authorities to ensure that advice and information is available free to everyone in their district about the right to apply for housing. If anyone is likely to have difficulty in making an application without assistance, the housing authority must ensure that any necessary assistance is available free of charge.

The Homelessness Directorate within the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has issued good practice guidance to assist local authorities in the development of their strategies on preventing and tackling homelessness in their area, to include information on addressing the needs of older people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and the needs of homeless black and

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minority ethnic people. This could include, for example, specialist mediation services for older people who have to leave a family home.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has invested £2.5 million in 2003–04 with Shelter's National Homelessness Advice Service (NHAS). NHAS is a secondary advice and support service provided by Shelter in partnership with the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux and has been supported by Government since it was established in 1990. This service is open to anyone who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The Housing and Older People Development Group—which advises the Department of Health and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on housing issues affecting older people—is looking into ways to develop and enhance advice, information and advocacy services nationally and locally for older people and their carers, to help them in making choices about housing, care and support options. The group is also looking at ways of sharing information across agencies and to support and advise the advisers.

As part of its work, the Group is also considering strategies to improving access to information about mainstream services for black and minority ethnic older people.

As part of the Government's Supporting People programme, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has published a guide: "Reflecting the Needs and Concerns of Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in Supporting People" for housing support service providers. This can be found on the Supporting People website address at: www.spkweb.org.uk/files/020429impreflect.pdf

In addition to the Supporting People main website, a special BMESpark website has also been developed. This brings together expertise and experience in responding to the needs and concerns of black and minority ethnic communities as part of the Supporting People Programme. The BMESpark website address is www.bmespark.org.uk.

Investment Frameworks (West Midlands)

Mr. Stevenson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many area investment frameworks have been established in the West Midlands Region. [137774]

Yvette Cooper: Advantage West Midlands (AWM) has developed six Regeneration Zones in the West Midlands Region, five of which are in urban areas.

The six zones encompass concentration of need and substantial opportunities, and include the most deprived wards in the region. They aim to regenerate communities by raising skills levels, creating development opportunities, reducing unemployment and tackling social exclusion.

A Regeneration Zone Partnership, which includes representatives from local authorities, businesses and the voluntary and community sectors, heads each Regeneration Zone and it is responsible for developing the Regeneration Zone Strategy, identifying needs in the area and how they might be addressed by funding streams

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available to partners. Substantial work is underway with the West Midlands Regional Observatory, to identify baseline conditions and outcome targets in each zone.

IT Contracts

Mr. Flight: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many outsourced IT contracts have been signed by his Department in each year since 1997; how much each of these contracts is worth; with whom they are signed; how many have been renegotiated; how many are still in place; and if he will make a statement. [126201]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) was created in May 2002. Since 1997, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and its central departmental predecessors (DTLR and DETR) signed two IT contracts, totalling £10.7 million. Of these, one is a Department for Transport (DfT) contract providing joint services to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the other is the sole responsibility of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. These contracts were let with:

LogicaCMG for the provision of the corporate payroll service for DfT and ODPM


Fujitsu for the provision of IT infrastructure and desktop services for the Government Office Network.

Both contracts are still in place and one has been renegotiated.

Referendums

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much has been spent by his Office on referenda since its creation. [137512]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has incurred no expenditure on holding referendums.

The Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003 provides for the forthcoming regional assembly referendums. Expenditure for these will be incurred by the Electoral Commission, who will request resources from the Speakers Committee to cover its referendum costs. Costs incurred by local authorities in running the referendums will be met from the consolidated fund. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will bear the associated costs of the information campaign and the work of the Boundary Committee.

The former Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions incurred expenditure of £1 million on the referendum held in London in 1998 on whether to establish the Greater London Authority.

Rented Homes

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects the Law Commission to (a) publish its final report on renting homes and (b) publish draft legislation. [138058]

Keith Hill: On 5 November 2003, the Law Commission published "Renting Homes" (Law Com 284) in which they set out recommendations on the reform of housing law. The report was published ahead of the publication of a draft Bill in order to allow the

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Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and others in the housing field to consider the policy issues underlying the Commission's proposals.

As the Commission pointed out in the press notice accompanying their report, the proposed new law will involve replacing a complex web of land law principles and statutory provisions that have grown up over the last 100 years.

Work is well in hand at the Commission on drafting the necessary legislation. Their aim is to publish a final report, together with a draft bill, in 2004. At this stage, it is not possible to be more precise.

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