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8 Mar 2004 : Column 1374W—continued

Local Government Finance

Chris Ruane: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much central Government funding was given to each local authority in each of the last 15 years, broken down by region. [156242]

Mr. Raynsford: The available information has been made available in the Library of the House.

Planning

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of the budget of the Sustainable Communities Policy will be allocated to the implementation of the stand-alone self-sustaining three-dimensional spatial concept for a city along the Thames from the Docklands to the Estuary. [159252]

Keith Hill: In "Sustainable Communities, Building for the Future" we announced that funding of £446 million over 3 years would be made available to the Thames Gateway as part of a total budget of almost £22 billion (see annex A). This will be used to tackle the barriers to development which have deterred investment in the Gateway. It will help regenerate existing communities and open up new development opportunities for housing

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and employment on major brownfield sites such as Ebbsfleet and Eastern Quarry in Kent and Barking Reach, which is the largest brownfield site in London.

Regional Government

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he estimates that the running costs of the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Assembly will be more than the running costs of the two-tier system. [159194]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said in the White Paper, "Your Region, Your Choice" that an elected assembly would have running costs of around £25 million a year. The potential savings from restructuring of local government in the area of North Yorkshire county council will not be known until the Boundary Committee for England reports in May on its recommended options for local government restructuring in North Yorkshire, and voters have had their say in a local government referendum.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will estimate the total cost of (a) holding the referendum for a Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Assembly, (b) setting up the Assembly and (c) holding the elections for the Assembly. [159195]

Mr. Raynsford: (a) The Government have recently consulted on The Regional Assembly and Local Government Referendums (Counting Officers' Charges) (England) Order 2004, that will establish the costs of conducting the referendums. Based on the figures in the draft order the cost of holding a referendum will be £1.47 per elector, if everyone eligible votes.

(b) Assemblies will cost around £30 million to set up.

(c) The set up costs include around £10 million for the first elections.

Rodent Infestation

Ms Walley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to publish data on rodent infestations in domestic premises based on the rolling annual English House Condition Survey. [158098]

Mr. Bradshaw: I have been asked to reply.

The English house Condition Survey was re-organised as a continuous survey from financial year 2002–03. First results from the survey will be available for analysis from end 2004 with a view to reporting in mid 2005 and based on data from the period 2002–03 to 2003–04. In future years, annual results will be available based on rolling combinations of two year data sets (ie next results will be available for analysis by end 2005 based on the period 2003–04 and 2004–05). This approach will provide a robust base for analysis and monitoring of change.

ODPM expect to publish a core set of national results, not covering rodent information but focussed on decent homes, using the combined two-year data set (2002–03 to 2003–04) by early next year. These results will report the

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condition of the housing stock as a mid-point average over the two year period (ie as at 1 April 2003) as well as change over time (ie since 2001). For subsequent years, core results will be released annually based on overlapping data sets.

Ms Walley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to publish the results of the 2001 English Home Conditions Survey relating to rodent infestations in domestic properties; and if he will make a statement. [158100]

Mr. Bradshaw: I have been asked to reply.

Central Science Laboratory's analyses of the 2001 English House Condition Survey data are nearing completion and Defra are expected to have the report by the end of March.

The report will subsequently be placed in the public domain following further consideration by the Department.

Small Business Funding

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) sufficient funding is available for small business start-ups in inner city areas and (b) sufficient information about that funding is relayed to local communities. [158083]

Yvette Cooper: To address the barriers to enterprise affecting the most disadvantaged communities in the country the Government has created 2000 Enterprise Areas, where businesses may benefit from one of several new or existing forms of Government assistance. These include help from the Phoenix Fund, which has been allocated £140 million to 2006 to provide finance for organisations providing funding for small businesses in disadvantaged communities, and encourages innovative ideas to promote and support enterprise in disadvantaged areas and in groups currently under-represented in terms of business ownership. Other measures designed to encourage enterprise include stamp duty exemptions, targeted support from the Inland Revenue and HM Customs, and neighbourhood renewal projects. Help is also available to community enterprises through the Adventure Capital Fund. Although it is not possible to put a monetary value on all these measures at this stage, they all provide real financial inducements for new businesses.

Regional Development Agencies, Local authorities, Business Link Operators and Local Strategic Partnerships play a significant role in boosting the awareness and uptake of relevant measures by local businesses and entrepreneurs.

Waste

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of local authority expenditure was spent on (a) waste disposal and (b) waste recycling in each of the last five years. [158962]

Mr. Raynsford: The proportion of local authority net current expenditure spent on waste disposal in the last five years is in the following table. Waste recycling costs are not reported separately.

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	Percentage
1999–00	1.45
2000–01	1.44
2001–02	1.47
2002–03	1.45
2003–04(30)	1.51

⁽³⁰⁾ Budgeted figures

Source:

1999–2000 to 2002–03 R06 and RS forms and 2003–04 Budget Estimate Returns

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how local authority funding for (a) waste disposal and (b) recycling is calculated. [158963]

Mr. Raynsford: Central Government funding for waste disposal and recycling is provided mainly through formula grant (Revenue support grant plus redistributed business rates) to local authorities.

Recycling is the responsibility of both the waste disposal and waste collection authorities. It is therefore part of the group of services included in both the county-level and the district-level Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services (EPCS) Formula Spending Share (FSS). The formula used for both the county-level and District-Level EPCS FSS can be found in Chapter 4 of the Local Government Finance Report (England).

Formula Spending Shares are neither grant nor are they the Government's assessment of how much an authority should spend on a particular service. They are simply the formulae used in the calculation of formula grant. Formula grant is unhypothecated i.e. it may be spent by the authority for any purpose. It is up to each authority to decide how much should be spent on each service given its local priorities.

PRIME MINISTER

Butler Inquiry

Mr. Mackay: To ask the Prime Minister what the estimated costs of the Butler Inquiry are. [159990]

The Prime Minister: The Butler Review is currently under way. I have asked it to report before the summer recess. The costs of the review will be published once it has concluded.

Dalai Lama

Norman Baker: To ask the Prime Minister what account he took of Anglo-Chinese relations before deciding not to meet the Dalai Lama on his planned visit to the UK. [159797]

The Prime Minister: None. I am unfortunately unable to meet the Dalai Lama due to existing diary commitments. However, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will be meeting the Dalai Lama during his visit.

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