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5 Jul 2004 : Column 451W—continued
English Heritage
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his answer of 23 June 2004, Official Report, column 1462W, on English Heritage, if he will seek advice from the Chief Executive of English Heritage as to the reasons for English Heritage abandoning its regional structure. [181551]
Mr. Raynsford: Following the recommendations of the 2002 quinquennial review, English Heritage is strengthening its regional presence. In addition to retaining its nine regional offices, English Heritage is appointing four new Territory Directors (north, south, east and west). This is intended to improve the regional focus of English Heritage activities and strengthen the relationship between national objectives and the needs of regions. It will also create efficiencies by rationalising property management and support functions.
Fire Service
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether it will be possible for fire authorities to repay transitional funding received from his Department in connection with the modernisation programme in the timescale originally required. [181563]
Mr. Raynsford: The Government's position remains that the transitional funding should be repaid in full and within the Spending Review (SR2002) period. However, the Government recognises that there have been delays in the pay and modernisation process and that, among other things, this could mean that we will be seeking to recoup the transitional funding less than a year after it has been distributed to fire and rescue authorities. It is important that we get a clearer picture of the pressures fire and rescue authorities may face, and the extent to which they are making efficiency improvements. To this end the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Local Government Association and Chief Fire Officer Association officials are working to develop the evidence base.
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the implementation of the modernisation of working practices in the Fire Service will lead to the elimination of the provision of beds in fire stations. [181570]
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Mr. Raynsford: All Fire and Rescue Authorities are in the process of implementing their first year action plans according to Integrated Risk Management (IRM) principles and will start consulting on their year two plans shortly. IRM replaces the former centrally determined standards of fire cover that sometimes bore little or no relation to the current pattern of risk in a given area. Each authority has to consider the range of risks faced by the communities it serves and then allocate available resources to maximum benefit. As part of that process, authorities have been considering whether current working patterns adequately match the occurrence of incidents over the course of the day. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not expect that there will be a "one size fits all" solution and it will be for each authority to determine what use to make of downtime during the night hours and what rest facilities are appropriate.
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether it is his policy that new negotiating machinery for pay and conditions within the Fire Service must include representatives of fire service unions other than the Fire Brigade Union. [181572]
Mr. Raynsford: It is the Government's policy, set out in the White Paper 'Our Fire and Rescue Service', that union participation in negotiating arrangements for the Fire and Rescue Service should be widened. We hope that voluntary reforms will achieve this. However, Government is seeking reserve powers under the Fire and Rescue Services Bill which would enable it to set up new statutory arrangements if voluntary reforms do not result in improvement.
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will rule out the use of TETRA technology for the delivery of the proposed Firelink Integrated Radio System for the Fire Service. [181547]
Mr. Raynsford: No technology has been ruled out. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is conducting an open competition under EU procurement procedures.
Paul Flynn: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the (a) industrial and (b) employment implications of the bids for the Firelink contract. [181556]
Mr. Raynsford: The Firelink contract has not reached the stage whereby bids are being evaluated. This is not expected to commence until later this year.
Housing
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what percentage of (a) privately owned non-rented housing stock, (b) privately owned rented housing stock and (c) publicly owned housing stock in each English region was estimated to be vacant at the most recent date for which data are available. [181567]
Keith Hill:
The information requested is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The nearest available data by private and social sector are in the following table. Registered Social Landlords are included in the social and not the private sector. This represents the latest data at the 1 April 2003.
5 Jul 2004 : Column 453W
| Region | Private sector | Social sector |
|---|---|---|
| North East | 4.1 | 3.3 |
| North West | 4.5 | 4.1 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 4.1 | 3.5 |
| East Midlands | 3.3 | 2.6 |
| West Midlands | 3.3 | 2.9 |
| East of England | 2.9 | 1.5 |
| London | 3.6 | 2.1 |
| South East | 2.5 | 1.5 |
| South West | 3.7 | 1.7 |
| England | 3.5 | 2.6 |
Source:
ODPM's Housing Investment Programme return and Housing Corporation's Regulatory Statistical return.
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what additional information he has requested from (a) the East Lancashire Partnership, (b) the local authorities in East Lancashire and (c) Elevate before he will consider releasing further resources to tackle housing market collapse in the area. [181983]
Keith Hill: Grant to 31 March 2006 towards the implementation of Elevate East Lancashire's market renewal scheme, aimed at tackling housing market collapse in the area, was announced in my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister's statement of 26 March 2004, Official Report, column 69WS.
Subject to performance and the outcome of the spending review, proposals for further implementation of the scheme in later years will be invited in due course. It would be expected that the East Lancashire Partnership and the local authorities in the area would contribute to any proposal made by Elevate.
Mr. Spring: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much housing funding has been allocated to (a) Forest Heath district council and (b) St. Edmundsbury borough council in each year since 1997. [181798]
Keith Hill: The Housing Capital Allocations given to Forest Heath district council and St. Edmundsbury borough council since 1997–98 are tabled as follows:
| Forest Heath | St. Edmundsbury | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 310 | 869 |
| 1998–99 | 277 | 719 |
| 1999–2000 | 263 | 787 |
| 2000–01 | 992 | 2,691 |
| 2001–02 | 397 | 829 |
| 2002–03 | 500 | 870 |
| 2003–04 | 386 | 787 |
| 2004–05(4) | 322 | 478 |
(4) Renamed Supported Capital Expenditure (Revenue) SCE(R).
Housing Corporation
Ms Oona King: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will place a copy of the Housing Corporation's London allocations statement for 2004 to 2006 in the Library. [181631]
5 Jul 2004 : Column 454W
Keith Hill: The Housing Corporation's London Allocation Statement for 2004–06 will be published shortly on the Housing Corporation's website www.housingcorp.gov.uk along with the allocation statements of the other regions. A copy will also be made available in the Library of the House.
Ms Oona King: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what assessment he has made of the impact of the Housing Corporation's total cost indicator financing regime on the numbers of family-sized affordable homes being built in London; [181636]
(2) if he will make a statement on the Housing Corporation's new partnering regime for registered social landlords building new affordable housing; and what assessment he has made of the potential for greater flexibility in relation to total cost indicators. [181637]
Keith Hill: The Housing Corporation introduced Partnering Programme Agreements (PPAs) into the main Approved Development Programme (ADP) for the 2004–06 programme. PPAs do not use cost benchmarking (as in the TCI regime) and focus on levels of grant paid rather than overall costs to registered social landlords (RSLs). They are individually negotiated. Almost 80 per cent. of the ADP for 2004–06 has been allocated to some 70 RSLs or groups of RSLs under partnering. The introduction of partnering in the 2004–06 ADP encouraged RSLs to bring forward cost effective proposals.
Total Cost Indicators (TCIs) have been used for the 20 per cent. of the 2004–06 ADP not allocated through partnering.
Within the TCI regime, there should be no disincentive to develop larger dwellings as the TCIs increase with the size of the dwellings. The TCIs only provide an indication of the "norm" costs of providing a dwelling of a certain size in a certain area. If more than eight people are to be housed in a dwelling, then RSLs can apply an additional multiplier to raise the TCI to take account of the increased costs.
In the ADP for 2004–06 the proportion on new build properties for rent of three beds or larger across London is around 26 per cent. of total dwellings.
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