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26 Mar 2004 : Column 1113W—continued

Wind Farms

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the economic viability of electricity generated from wind farms. [163622]

26 Mar 2004 : Column 1114W

Mr. Timms: Modelling carried out to support the recent Innovation Review shows the current cost of onshore wind generation as 3.1–4 p/kWh expected to fall to W2.5–3.2 p/kWh by 2020 and offshore wind generation as 6.0–7.6 p/kWh expected to fall to W3.0–4.6 p/kWh by 2020.

These costs are indicative and subject to variation as the economics of electricity generated from both onshore and offshore wind farms are dependent on the amount of wind at the wind farm site. Electricity generated by onshore and offshore wind farms is eligible for support under the Renewables Obligation.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Council Tax Receipts (Greater London)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the level of council tax receipts collected in Greater London was in each year since 1997, broken down by borough, and what the forecast figures are for the next year. [163766]

Mr. Raynsford: Tabled are the amounts of council tax collected in each London borough and the City of London, irrespective of the financial year to which they relate, in each year from 1996–97 to 2002–03.

Figures for the amounts of council tax received are not requested from local authorities until after the end of the relevant financial year. The amounts received during 2003–04 and future years will depend upon the council tax levels set for each year, changes in the tax base, the collection rates achieved, amounts of council tax benefit expenditure incurred, and amounts collected in respect of earlier years.

Amounts of council tax collected⁽¹⁾£000

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
Inner London
City of London	1,417	1,571	1,830	2,091	2,280	2,551	2,644
Camden	43,630	50,506	58,740	60,660	60,840	65,780	69,600
Greenwich	36,751	42,630	46,802	48,267	50,108	52,074	56,861
Hackney	23,071	26,801	26,618	27,787	29,625	36,716	44,568
Hammersmith and Fulham	35,882	44,846	47,912	50,515	53,881	57,654	58,743
Islington	31,335	38,133	40,736	43,349	43,783	45,786	46,640
Kensington and Chelsea	37,334	42,781	45,354	49,832	49,102	55,316	64,412
Lambeth	31,924	41,908	42,931	46,740	46,401	58,396	65,919
Lewisham	32,537	41,976	43,267	46,284	52,070	57,426	62,481
Southwark	34,584	38,100	43,211	45,193	52,919	55,892	61,468
Tower Hamlets	18,419	21,742	23,978	27,478	31,839	34,662	38,699
Wandsworth	35,719	38,825	30,242	36,648	40,158	46,130	41,475
Westminster	25,260	28,980	31,866	34,074	36,137	41,036	44,996
Total Inner London	387,863	458,799	483,487	518,918	549,143	609,419	658,506
Outer London
Barking and Dagenham	19,475	22,858	25,951	27,766	30,060	32,712	34,808
Barnet	68,042	75,680	83,756	87,787	97,072	103,031	108,870
Bexley	40,037	44,750	49,845	55,312	58,926	64,237	69,686
Brent	27,051	38,836	41,902	48,516	52,570	55,255	60,805
Bromley	60,924	68,076	71,584	78,385	86,353	97,867	105,146
Croydon	57,745	64,627	73,295	83,487	84,302	90,750	92,588
Ealing	45,009	53,922	60,563	66,164	70,814	77,710	84,178
Enfield	46,958	53,461	57,529	63,150	67,115	75,117	82,041
Haringey	35,330	43,165	46,422	49,023	52,552	55,531	59,516
Harrow	39,659	46,560	51,503	55,675	60,842	67,748	72,747
Havering	42,674	49,577	54,880	59,243	66,473	72,568	79,367
Hillingdon	43,968	49,477	55,678	61,194	67,696	74,588	81,231
Hounslow	39,162	44,479	47,402	52,496	58,158	64,650	69,485
Kingston upon Thames	30,454	33,410	36,394	42,231	47,128	52,594	58,606
Merton	37,134	42,613	46,781	49,435	54,335	60,845	65,371
Newham	20,040	24,894	26,810	30,400	33,735	38,069	41,568
Redbridge	39,582	45,190	49,297	55,261	59,162	64,173	69,449
Richmond upon Thames	51,112	56,319	57,691	64,420	70,465	77,674	85,077
Sutton	35,534	39,166	43,716	47,441	50,690	55,524	61,623
Waltham Forest	36,215	44,685	44,065	46,192	49,544	53,829	57,988
Total Outer London	816,105	941,745	1,025,064	1,123,578	1,217,992	1,334,472	1,440,150
Total Greater London	1,203,968	1,400,544	1,508,551	1,642,496	1,767,135	1,943,891	2,098,656

⁽¹⁾ Irrespective of the financial year to which it relates.

26 Mar 2004 : Column 1115W

Green Belt House Building

Bob Spink: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of new house building in the South East he estimates will be on Green Belt land up to 2020; and if he will make it his policy to prevent all new house building on Green Belt in the South East up to 2020. [163534]

Keith Hill: Government policy on Green Belts is set out in Planning Policy Guidance Note 2 (PPG2). It remains the policy to protect Green Belts as far as can be seen ahead and boundaries must be altered only exceptionally. Decisions on the need to alter boundaries in order to accommodate development are for regional planning bodies and local planning authorities in the first instance. Any proposals for changes should be brought forward through the regional and local planning process in order to ensure that they are subject to public consultation and scrutiny.

It is not be possible to estimate what proportion of development in the South East will be on Green Belt land up to 2020 until new regional spatial strategies (RSS) for the East of England and the South East are issued, probably in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Housing Requirement

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to meet the Office for National Statistics prediction of a need for 56 million homes in the United Kingdom by 2021. [163670]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was not able to identify the source of the reference to '56 million homes'. The latest population projections by Government Actuary's Department show the UK population rising from 59 million in 2002 to 63 million in 2021. It is, however, the number of households that relates to homes. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's 1996 based household projections for England show household numbers rising to 24 million in 2021 an increase of 3 million households from 2001.

The Sustainable Communities Plan, published in February 2003, set out a programme of action on how to ensure a better balance between housing supply and demand across the regions.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is addressing the housing shortage in areas of high demand, especially in London and the wider South East, through a step change in housing supply.

26 Mar 2004 : Column 1116W

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is working with local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that existing planned levels of housing provision are delivered—this means an additional 930,000 homes by 2016.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is also progressing delivery of the Growth Areas—which, along with London, have the capacity to deliver 200,000 additional homes above current planning targets by 2016.

The latest revisions to Regional Planning Guidance now underway are looking further—to 2021. Policy options will take into account the Barker Review's finding that current levels of housing supply are not sufficient. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister agrees that to deliver our commitment to stability and affordability in the housing market a significant increase in development over time is needed. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister needs to consider the scale of such development and how it can be delivered both in high demand areas and in areas suffering problems of low demand. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister also need to balance the economic case for increased development against its social and environmental implications. The need to reflect all these issues in our policies, in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, underpins our commitment to deliver, not just more housing, but sustainable communities that people want to live in.

EU Structural Funds

Ann Winterton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much local authority funding in the (a) North West, (b) North East and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber for the 2000 to 2006 period has been used for matched funding. [163717]

Mr. Raynsford: As regards European regional funding, this information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. While the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister holds details of public sector contributions to European Regional Development Fund programmes, this is not broken down into individual categories, such as local authorities.

The public sector match funding contributions to the 2000–06 Objective 1 and 2 programmes in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, from 2000 until 24 March 2004 are as follows.

26 Mar 2004 : Column 1117W

Region and programme	Total spend (ERDF plus match funding) (£)	Public sector match funding (£)	Public sector as percentage of total
North West
Merseyside Objective 1	334,357,790	137,238,950	41
North West Objective 2	401,255,420	189,157,370	47
North East
North East Objective 2	345,981,850	162,709,330	47
Yorkshire and the Humber
South Yorks Objective 1	258,080,290	56,745,723	22
Yorkshire and the Humber Objective 2	179,197,960	88,698,149	49

Note:

Exchange rate used £1 = Euros1.54.

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