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19 Oct 2004 : Column 568W—continued

Housing (Somerset)

Mr. Laws: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to increase the supply of affordable homes in Somerset; and if he will make a statement. [192068]

Keith Hill: Through the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme (ADP) the South West Housing Body has allocated the following amounts to deliver 324 Affordable Homes in South Somerset from 2003 until 2006:

	£
2003–04	1,518,626
2004–05	1,300,629
2005–06	4,007,790

 
19 Oct 2004 : Column 569W
 

Local Government

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the total cost of administering local government has been in each year since 1990. [191248]

Mr. Raynsford: The total revenue expenditure by all local authorities on all services since 1990–91 is listed in the following table.

	(£ million)
1990–91	35,851
1991–92	39,472
1992–93	42,020
1993–94	41,506
1994–95	43,602
1995–96	44,827
1996–97	46,532
1997–98	47,256
1998–99	50,189
1999–2000	53,651
2000–01	57,329
2001–02	61,952
2002–03	65,906
2003–04	72,473
2004–05	79,447

Source:
Local Government Financial Statistics—England: various years

The data show actual outturn figures for all years except 2003–04 and 2004–05 which budget estimates.

The figures show local government expenditure financed from Revenue Support Grant, specific grants within Aggregate External Finance, special grants, non-domestic rates, community charges (1990–91 to 1992–93) council taxes (1993–94 onwards) and balances. The figures also include spending met by community charge grant (1991–92), additional grant for teachers pay (1992–93), SSA reduction grant (1994–95 to 2001–02), police grant (1995–96 onwards), Central Support Protection Grant (1990–2000 to 2001–02) and General Greater London Authority Grant (2000–01 onwards).

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the Evaluation of Community Strategies and Plan Rationalisation will be implemented; how far implementation will extend; and what the cost of implementation will be to public funds. [191260]

Mr. Raynsford: The formative evaluation of Community Strategies and the Plan Rationalisation process commenced in early 2004 and is due to complete by early 2007.

The evaluation is producing a series of guidance materials to support local, regional and central stakeholders. Outputs will be produced on an incremental basis throughout the three years.

In order to make cost savings and reduce the research burden on local agencies, research on these two closely related policies have been combined through shared research instruments. Thus the total contract cost is estimated at £572,535. The evaluation is also linked to supporting other key aspects of local government policy, notably Local Strategic Partnerships and developing Local Area Agreements.
 
19 Oct 2004 : Column 570W
 

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the Overarching Evaluation of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda will be implemented; how far implementation will extend; and what the cost of implementation will be to public funds. [191261]

Mr. Raynsford: The Overarching Evaluation of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda (LGMA) commenced in January 2002 and is due to be completed in December 2007.

The evaluation aims to draw together the lessons learned from evaluations of the 20 or more individual policy elements of the LGMA, such as the Best Value Regime, Local Public Service Agreements, New Council Constitutions and Local Strategic Partnerships. It seeks to provide an overview of the impacts of the LGMA as a whole in the key areas of service improvement, accountability, community leadership, stakeholder engagement and public confidence. It also seeks to provide an understanding of how these policies interact and key drivers of change to inform current delivery of policies and future policy development.

The evaluation is designed to produce a series of annual reports, conference presentations, seminars, and specific thematic and policy papers throughout the lifetime of the study. This approach is to ensure flexible and timely use of research findings by a range of policy and practitioner audiences. The project is overseen by a Steering Group, administered and chaired by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with the Audit Commission, IDeA, LGA, Employers Organisation and SOLACE as members. The Steering Group has developed a dissemination strategy, drawing on the resources available to each organisation, to ensure the lessons learned from this work reach local government as effectively as possible. The total contract cost of this programme of work over its entire five years is £1,817,328.

Diana Organ: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he plans to issue the advice from the Standards Board for England in relation to declarations of prejudicial interests for local authority councillors. [191934]

Phil Hope: The Standards Board for England is an independent body, established by Parliament. One of the Board's functions is to issue guidance to local authorities relating to the conduct of members. The Board has recently prepared new guidance relating to potential conflicts of interest arising from membership of lobby groups and where members sit on more than one relevant authority and other public bodies. The guidance, entitled 'Lobby groups, dual-hatted members and the Code of Conduct', was published on the Board's website on 29 September. The Board plans to distribute copies of the guidance to all authorities by the end of October.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his estimate is of the change in the local authority grant to Somerset county council which would result in 2005–06 if the 2001 Census data were used; and if he will make a statement. [192073]

Mr. Raynsford: The provisional amount of grant for each local authority in 2005–06 will be announced to Parliament later this year. An announcement has already been made that we will not be using the 2001
 
19 Oct 2004 : Column 571W
 
Census data in the 2005–06 settlement on 21 July 2004, Official Report, column 30WS. This is because it would have been technically incorrect to have simply introduced the data without first amending the statistical models underlying the Formula Spending Share formulae. Changing the formulae in this way would have broken the formula freeze that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has introduced to provide funding stability for authorities. Further research is being undertaken on the formula changes needed to incorporate the 2001 Census data into the Formula Spending Share formulae.

It is not therefore possible to estimate what amount of grant any authority would receive if the 2001 Census data were to be incorporated. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will be consulting local authorities during the summer of 2005 on the formulae for the 2006–07 settlement incorporating the 2001 Census data.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when corporate capital strategies and asset management plans will be implemented; how far implementation will extend; and what the cost of implementation will be to public funds. [191257]

Mr. Raynsford: Local authorities have been producing capital strategies and asset management plans since 2000. Most now have good quality plans in place and authorities are no longer required to submit them to central Government. There should be no net cost to public funds since these processes are essential elements of effective corporate planning and the costs should be far outweighed by the resulting efficiency gains and service improvements.
 
19 Oct 2004 : Column 572W
 

Bob Spink: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister for what reasons his Department will not use the 2001 Census data for the calculation of the local government finance settlement; and if he will make a statement. [192345]

Alistair Burt: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will use 2001 Census figures in relation to the local government financial settlement for Bedfordshire from 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [192682]

Mr. Raynsford: The provisional amount of grant for each local authority in 2005–06 will be announced to Parliament later this year. An announcement has already been made that we will not be using the 2001 Census data in the 2005–06 settlement on 21 July 2004, Official Report, column 30WS. This is because it would have been technically incorrect to have simply introduced the data without first amending the statistical models underlying the Formula Spending Share formulae. Changing the formulae in this way would have broken the formula freeze that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has introduced to provide funding stability for authorities. Further research is being undertaken on the formula changes needed to incorporate the 2001 Census data into the Formula Spending Share formulae.

It is not therefore possible to estimate what amount of grant any authority would receive if the 2001 Census data were to be incorporated. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will be consulting local authorities during the summer of 2005 on the formulae for the 2006–07 settlement incorporating the 2001 Census data.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much central government funding was given to each borough council in London in each of the last 10 years. [191253]

Mr. Raynsford: The requested information has been tabled as follows.
Central government funding to London boroughs—1995–96 to 2004–05 Figures shown in £000

	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
Greater London Authority
City of London	96,339	95,218	96,827	85,052	86,929
Camden	187,947	187,092	194,222	200,121	208,994
Greenwich	200,794	198,573	196,638	207,230	225,508
Hackney	243,744	242,301	245,175	246,385	258,648
Hammersmith and Fulham	150,676	147,347	145,387	148,850	159,107
Islington	192,560	189,503	190,019	201,697	224,987
Kensington and Chelsea	116,026	115,371	117,946	120,870	127,582
Lambeth	266,047	261,144	258,401	266,091	284,441
Lewisham	213,826	214,967	219,953	234,615	249,200
Southwark	244,138	236,301	238,281	252,635	279,265
Tower Hamlets	246,929	246,061	249,471	269,788	289,204
Wandsworth	220,014	212,517	209,511	208,076	218,592
Westminster	202,928	200,166	208,944	205,743	214,927
Barking and Dagenham	113,106	116,061	118,656	136,439	153,355
Barnet	174,312	178,183	181,321	197,653	206,389
Bexley	121,616	126,384	127,211	138,397	150,293
Brent	216,203	218,666	215,229	228,112	237,213
Bromley	138,673	145,124	148,817	158,935	170,679
Croydon	190,830	196,251	198,743	213,961	223,053
Ealing	208,220	208,611	204,892	219,684	231,883
Enfield	176,613	181,993	185,874	202,007	219,856
Haringey	195,928	198,961	198,379	217,479	236,886
Harrow	114,946	117,095	116,256	124,974	131,021
Havering	119,414	122,202	120,663	129,039	137,320
Hillingdon	139,846	145,547	146,479	156,474	173,676
Hounslow	149,747	154,632	156,701	164,042	175,518
Kingston-upon-Thames	71,293	72,605	72,051	75,483	80,037
Merton	97,346	98,720	99,184	107,148	116,318
Newham	247,061	251,196	257,090	286,302	308,655
Redbridge	143,488	150,824	153,034	167,213	183,073
Richmond-upon-Thames	67,491	69,692	71,097	75,758	81,937
Sutton	96,406	99,840	99,803	106,006	114,785
Waltham Forest	176,434	179,196	179,071	192,707	210,339
London total	5,540,941	5,578,344	5,621,326	5,944,966	6,369,670

 
19 Oct 2004 : Column 573W
 

	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05
Greater London Authority	2,057,037	2,557,745	2,880,372	3,322,134	4,443,162
City of London	88,806	92,503	101,051	114,686	118,138
Camden	218,845	237,742	248,752	287,458	307,631
Greenwich	246,101	264,300	276,789	296,794	324,118
Hackney	272,945	288,231	338,591	339,689	400,429
Hammersmith and Fulham	168,927	180,845	190,898	191,775	219,885
Islington	243,470	257,123	272,635	299,696	288,636
Kensington and Chelsea	136,376	142,022	152,609	173,460	176,760
Lambeth	297,079	315,585	339,190	370,308	393,112
Lewisham	271,900	283,458	293,515	326,711	355,875
Southwark	313,860	326,016	351,218	371,584	406,544
Tower Hamlets	310,219	335,064	359,807	386,475	430,373
Wandsworth	229,475	240,694	248,308	268,124	282,588
Westminster	223,983	234,166	248,985	274,489	280,944
Barking and Dagenham	168,827	181,277	193,347	208,130	227,969
Barnet	222,831	240,316	241,925	265,156	276,287
Bexley	161,768	174,242	183,207	191,128	203,650
Brent	250,397	269,426	276,662	314,888	333,664
Bromley	184,021	198,772	199,956	211,995	229,316
Croydon	243,635	266,718	288,307	296,725	333,921
Ealing	248,310	268,568	277,684	282,222	309,671
Enfield	240,111	264,089	275,061	290,542	305,520
Haringey	270,816	296,350	301,816	323,742	324,119
Harrow	140,587	151,243	160,383	170,315	185,440
Havering	148,095	160,585	166,805	177,105	184,712
Hillingdon	171,976	209,693	214,850	219,710	261,358
Hounslow	185,410	198,506	205,749	212,975	235,712
Kingston-upon-Thames	86,752	94,245	96,829	105,524	112,258
Merton	123,479	128,796	132,213	143,605	154,857
Newham	335,547	362,671	391,428	420,178	447,495
Redbridge	202,581	219,850	212,881	225,355	244,289
Richmond-upon-Thames	94,629	100,260	106,081	106,602	114,979
Sutton	124,048	132,822	135,718	149,863	163,103
Waltham Forest	229,063	248,061	263,757	264,014	293,244
London total	8,911,906	9,921,984	10,627,379	11,603,157	13,369,759

Note:
The data are taken from the RS (outturn) forms for all years except 2003–04 and 2004–05 when the data are taken from the RA (budget) form.

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