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Written Ministerial Statements

Friday 26 March 2004

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders

The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. John Prescott): I am delighted to announce the award of a total of £192.5 million to three more housing market renewal pathfinders over the next two years to implement their strategic schemes. The funding comes from the £500 million market renewal fund announced in February 2003 in "Sustainable Communities: building for the future".

The investment from the market renewal fund will be complemented by significant investment from other public programmes and the private sector. This will enable actions to be taken which will lead to the creation of long-term sustainable communities.

The allocation of resources to these schemes marks another key step in our commitment to deliver thriving sustainable communities in those areas devastated by low demand housing and abandonment.

I am announcing today that the South Yorkshire market renewal pathfinder will receive £71 million, that the East Lancashire market renewal pathfinder will receive £68 million and that Oldham and Rochdale market renewal pathfinder will receive £53.5 million until March 2006 to help to tackle the terrible problems caused by low demand. This is in addition to an allocation of £4 million each for an early action programme which they received in June 2003.

By March 2006 the pathfinders expect to deliver:

In South Yorkshire the demolition of over 1,600 homes; the refurbishment of over 2,000 homes; over 100 new homes built; significant improvements to housing environments affecting 21,000 homes; and additional management measures to over 16,000 homes.

In East Lancashire the demolition of almost 800 homes; the refurbishment of 1,100 homes; over 100 new homes built; significant improvements to housing environments affecting 43,000 homes; and additional management measures to over 73,000 homes.

In Oldham Rochdale the demolition of nearly 300 houses; the acquisition of over 400 homes; the refurbishment of over 350 homes; significant improvements to housing environments affecting over 3,000 homes; and additional management measures to over 11,000 homes.

Each of the pathfinder schemes has been independently scrutinised by the Audit Commission which has published a report on each scheme. The Audit Commission has looked at the evidence base and the proposed strategy to help ensure that the schemes are realistic, offer value for money and will deliver long-term housing market renewal. To meet this aim, the Audit Commission has made a number of recommendations about each scheme. The Office of the

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Deputy Prime Minister and each pathfinder have accepted all the recommendations and funding will depend on compliance.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Performance Targets 2004–05

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Gerry Sutcliffe): I have set Companies House the following targets for the year 2004–05:

A fully electronic operation

To achieve 15 per cent. take-up for electronic submission of documents by the end of 2004–05, 35 per cent. take-up by the end of 2005–06 and 55 per cent. take-up by the end of 2006–07.

Readily and freely accessible information

To ensure that products and services on Companies House Direct and WebCheck are available for 98 per cent. of the time between the core hours of 7 am and 8 pm, Monday to Friday.

To ensure that the web filing service is available to customers for a minimum 98 per cent. of the time between the core hours of 7 am and 8 pm, Monday to Friday.

An efficient reliable and up to date registry

To achieve, on average, a monthly compliance rate for accounts and annual returns submitted of 92 per cent.

To ensure that 96.5 per cent. of all forms submitted to Companies House are captured error-free.

To ensure that of 98 per cent. of images placed on the Companies House image system are legible.

To ensure that at least 99 per cent. of images to be placed on the image system are made available within three days.

To maintain a unit cost reduction of 3 per cent. in real terms on document registration

To achieve, taking one year with another, a 3.5 per cent. average rate of return based on the operating surplus expressed as a percentage of average net assets.

To pay all bills due within 30 days, or on other agreed credit terms, on receipt of goods or services or a valid invoice whichever is later.

Customers who are highly satisfied with our services

To resolve 97 per cent. of complaints within five days.

The Chief Executive to reply within 10 days to all letters from Members of Parliament delegated to her for reply.

To achieve a score of more than 82 per cent. in each quarterly Companies House customer satisfaction survey.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Gerry Sutcliffe): I am pleased to announce that in the light of a strong performance by The Insolvency Service in 2003–04 I have been able to set it a series of challenging targets for 2004–05 and 2005–06 that reflect the general pressure on the public service to deliver increasing efficiency and value for money. Official Receivers and their staffs have a major role to play in delivering the personal insolvency reforms under the Enterprise Act 2002 which come into operation on 1 April 2004 and the new financial regime to which it moves on the same date will provide the flexibility it needs to respond to variations in caseloads within financial years and over longer periods. Under

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this new financial regime the service is expected to generate sufficient income from fees and charges to defray the total cost of its case administration, estate banking and professional regulation activities. Improvement in its customer focus is reflected in high levels of customer satisfaction and I expect he service to build on this over the coming years. I have asked the chief executive to continue the development of a range of outcome-focused measures, particularly in the regulatory area. At the same time as ensuring that its enforcement action is proportionate and aligned to the policies that promote enterprise and the responsible use of credit, I have also asked the agency to pay particular attention to its role in ensuring high standards of commercial conduct.

The targets set out in the table below reflect the variety of the Service's operations.

It will reduce the cost of its policy work by 9 per cent. in 2004–05.

The Agency will reduce the average time for securing a disqualification from 24 months to 22 months.

It will reduce the 2004–05 cost of enforcement activity by 4 per cent.

It will establish a benchmark unit cost for enforcement activity during 2004–05 and then further reduce that cost by 25 per cent. by March 2006.

It will increase enforcement activity outputs by 41 per cent. in 2005–06 over the 2004–05 baseline.

It will action 90 per cent. of redundancy payment claims within six weeks and will increase the manpower productivity of processing such claims by 11 per cent. in 2004–05.

It will increase the percentage of user satisfaction as measured by the User Satisfaction Index from 86 per cent. to 88 per cent.

It will retain Charter Mark by Summer 2004 and will retain Investors in People accreditation in January 2006.

It will maintain the amount of open insolvency cases at no more than 12 months' input and by 1 April 2006 it will reduce the case administration fee from that prevailing at 1 April 2004 by 8.5 per cent. on a like for like basis.

It will action 100 per cent of invoices for payment within 30 days of receipt, and 97 per cent. within 20 days. It will also action 98 per cent. of Insolvency Service account payments within four days of their requisition.

Based on an expected reduction of 6.3 per cent. in 2003–04, it will further reduce the costs of the accommodation and procurement functions by 8 per cent. by April 2006.

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British American Tobacco

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Patricia Hewitt): In response to recommendations in a report dated 14 June 2000 on the tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking, which was published by the Health Select Committee, my predecessor launched an investigation under Section 447 of the Companies Act 1985 to look at allegations that British American Tobacco has been involved in smuggling.

The investigation has been completed. It has not uncovered material indicating a basis for launching a criminal investigation and the Department does not propose to take any further action.

Information obtained under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985 is confidential and may not be published or disclosed except in strictly defined circumstances under section 449 of the Companies Act 1985

TREASURY

Tax Avoidance

The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo): Legislation is to be included in the Finance Bill 2004 to prevent tax avoidance schemes which seek to work round the legislation announced on 10 February 2004. The new legislation will only apply to losses from a trade involving the exploitation of film, apart from a trade involving the production of a film or the acquisition of the master version of a film. It will not therefore affect partnerships which operate within the specific relief for qualifying films. For trading losses which arise in any of the first four years that a partner carries on a trade, relief for set-off against other income will be denied where a partner does not spend a significant amount of time in the partnership trade and is guaranteed to receive income from the partnership. The changes will have effect from today.

A copy of today's Inland Revenue news release giving the relevant background to this measure is being deposited in the Libraries of both Houses and is also accessible on the Inland Revenue website: http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/.

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