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Havering Borough Council

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the performance of the London borough of Havering. [191553]

Mr. Raynsford: Havering LBC was assessed as "weak" by the Audit Commission in the first round of Comprehensive Performance Assessments in 2002.

Officials in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have been working with the council, and resources from the Capacity Building Programme have been allocated to support long-term improvement programmes. I met the leader, chief executive and leaders of the council's political groups on Thursday 14 October and, while welcoming their commitment to improvement, emphasised the need for sustained progress on many fronts. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister looks forward to seeing the delivery of this commitment in terms of a measurable and sustainable improvement in performance across the London borough of Havering.

Housing (Southend)

Mr. Amess: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list grants his Department has made for housing in Southend in each of the past three years. [192277]

Keith Hill: The readily available information on the funding (£ million) provided by central Government to Southend-on-Sea borough council for housing investment is in the following table. Spend on homelessness is also funded from general revenue support grant and the authority's own resources.

				£ million
	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05(38)
Central Government support(39)	6.627	6.784	6.369	6.488
Approved development programme	0.577	1.310	1.420	3.549
Homelessness	0.0	0.189	0.183	0.183

⁽³⁸⁾ Provisional figures
⁽³⁹⁾ Includes an element assumed to be funded from the authority's capital receipts.

Housing above Shops

Ms Oona King: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his Department's latest estimate is of the number of residential units available for conversion from unused commercial space above shops to residential properties. [192771]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister estimates that there is potential to create up to 300,000 dwellings for residential accommodation by converting unused commercial space above shops.

Ms Oona King: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the work of the Housing Above Shops Task Force. [192772]

Keith Hill: The Housing Above Shops Task Force was established by the British Property Federation and Living Over The Shop Project at the instigation of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in December 2002. The Task Force was asked to advise on measures to
 
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overcome perceived barriers preventing more unoccupied space above retail premises from being converted for housing use.

The report of the Task Force highlighted a number of barriers and made a number of recommendations to overcome them, including the provision of a new advisory and scheme assembly service. The recommendation is being taken forward in a feasibility study being undertaken by the Housing Partnership, which is due to report its findings in the near future.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is, in addition, funding the activities of the Living Over The Shop Project on an interim basis pending the outcome of the feasibility study.

Local Authority Websites

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 7 September 2004, Official Report, column 1163W, on local authority websites, whether it is permissible for local authority websites to include an external link to a councillor's personal or political website. [190700]

Mr. Raynsford: There are no legislative provisions prohibiting or otherwise regulating links from a local authority site to a councillor's personal or political external website.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what initiatives he has promoted to local authorities to reduce wastage of financial resources. [191254]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is taking forward this issue in a number of respects: through effective auditing arrangements, through intervention in cases of poor performance, through our on-going work to build up capacity, through the use of capping powers to prevent unreasonable increases in council tax and through implementation of the recommendations of the Efficiency Review on local government.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the Capital Finance-Prudential Regime evaluation will be implemented; how far implementation will extend; and what the cost of implementation will be to public funds. [191258]

Mr. Raynsford: The Prudential capital finance system was fully implemented on 1 April 2004 for all local authorities in England. Authorities may borrow without Government consent, provided that they can afford to service the debt without extra Government support. The new system costs no more to run than the old one and should prove more cost-effective, since it is simpler and better integrated with standard accounting practice. It further promotes efficiency by encouraging authorities to pursue projects which generate savings or revenues to cover their borrowing costs. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister monitors the system and plans to do a full evaluation when authorities have had longer to explore its potential.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what measures the Government has in place to ensure that local authorities spend the money allocated to them by central government in an appropriate way. [191488]

 
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Mr. Raynsford: Local authorities are independent autonomous bodies responsible for decisions on spending priorities taking into account their statutory responsibilities and the wishes of their electorate. The Government are committed to ensuring that authorities have greater freedoms and flexibilities and to ensuring that ring-fencing is only introduced where it is appropriate to do so.

Local authorities must protect and be accountable for the funds that they handle. Thus it is essential that their accounts are audited annually by an independent auditor.

Part of the auditor's statutory duties are to be satisfied that proper arrangements have been made for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources. In the case of local authorities, auditors may give electors the opportunity to raise questions about the accounts, and to consider and decide upon objections received in relation to the accounts. Also the auditor may consider applying to the Courts if an item of account is unlawful.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) if he will make a statement on the funding of local government; [191555]

(2) how much central Government money each London borough will receive in each of the next three years. [191693]

Mr. Raynsford: A statement on formula grant allocations for 2005–06 will be made in due course.

Local Government Finance (York)

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much City of York council received in Government grant in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each year since it was established as a unitary council; and by how much in real terms its Government grant changed in each of those years. [191235]

Mr. Raynsford: The amount of Government grant City of York council has received in (a) cash and (b) real terms each year since 1996–97 and the real terms percentage change is tabled as follows:

	Cash (£000)	Real terms (£000)	Real terms percentage change
1996–97	81,884	99,557	—
1997–98	81,176	96,226	-3.3
1998–99	84,654	97,538	1.4
1999–2000	90,658	102,227	4.8
2000–01	98,955	110,302	7.9
2001–02	105,374	114,541	3.8
2002–03	112,222	118,014	3.0
2003–04	116,580	119,271	1.1
2004–05	130,936	130,936	9.8

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.

Government grants are defined here in terms of Revenue Support Grant, specific and special grants within Aggregate External Finance (AEF) and distributable amount from non-domestic pool.
 
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The figures have been re-valued for previous years at 2004–05 prices using the latest GDP deflators.

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