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Faith-based Volunteers

Charles Hendry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what guidance he gives to local authorities regarding the funding of voluntary projects run by churches and religious groups. [220267]

Mr. Raynsford: Although the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not formally guide local authorities on funding of voluntary projects run by churches and religious groups, its position on this issue remains as outlined in the Local Government Association's "Faith and community—a good practice guide for local authorities". The "Compact: Community Groups Code" also sets out a position on funding for faith communities agreed within the Compact process which the Government endorses.

Housing

Mr. Salter: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many units were built as part of each affordable housing scheme funded in Reading, West in each of the last three years; and how many units in each scheme are for key workers. [219498]

Keith Hill: The Housing Corporation records affordable housing schemes by type of funding, Housing Association, site and whether or not the housing is for key workers. Thus key worker housing and non-key
 
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worker housing are identified as separate schemes even if they are built in close proximity in the same or different years.

A summary of affordable dwellings built in Reading local authority area, which includes Reading, West, for the last three years for which data are available is given in the following table.
Affordable housing in Reading 2001–02 to 2003–04

	Number of schemes	Number of units
2001–02
Non-key worker	22	157
Key worker	4	4
Total	26	161
2002–03
Non-key worker	17	138
Key worker	41	41
Total	58	179
2003–04
Non-key worker	38	250
Key worker	104	249
Total	142	499

Source:
Housing Corporation South East

In 2001–02 and 2002–03 the key worker housing was constructed under the Starter Homes Initiative and individual dwellings were recorded as separate schemes. In 2003–04 the key worker housing built in the local authority area consisted of 94 dwellings under the Starter Homes Initiative and recorded as separate schemes together with 155 dwellings built in 10 schemes using Challenge Funds. These 10 schemes consisted of between eight and 26 dwellings. Funding for affordable housing for non-key workers are through the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme, Challenge Fund, and Local Authority Social Housing Grant.

Mr. Salter: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on funding plans for key worker housing in Reading, West. [219499]

Keith Hill: Affordable housing assistance for eligible key workers within the Reading, West area is available through the £690 million Key Worker Living programme.

As at the end of January 2005, a total of £3,885,366 had been spent to assist 102 key workers in Berkshire to purchase homes through the "Homebuy" element of the programme. "Homebuy" allocations for 2005–06 within the Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Zone are still subject to confirmation.

In addition it is anticipated that a further £11,306,959 will be spent on producing 396 new build units by March 2007. The following table breaks down these figures by local authority:

	Homebuy Element		New Build Element
Local authority	Number of key workers assisted	Total grant expenditure (£)	Number of units	Total grant expenditure (£)
Bracknell Forest	17	691,460	50	1,003,001
Reading	29	1,051,530	247	7,770,871
Slough	24	900,476	31	667,500
West Berkshire	7	270,789	0	0
Windsor and Maidenhead	4	164,940	28	640,000
Wokingham	21	806,171	40	1,225,587
Total	102	3,885,366	396	11,306,959

 
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Key workers may also benefit from the shared ownership and Homebuy programmes funded by the Housing Corporation to help existing social tenants and those on waiting lists into home ownership.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will break down the expected building costs of building the Government's planned £60,000 homes by each estimated unit construction cost. [219656]

Keith Hill: In the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's "Homes for All" public service plan, launched on 24 January 2005, a competition was announced that would invite organisations to bid for the right to construct one or more new developments on English Partnerships owned sites. This "Design for Manufacture" competition aims to demonstrate that it is possible to build a home that reaches good standards of accessible design and environmental performance for £60,000.

This target cost of £60,000 for constructing a home relates solely to construction costs. In setting this target, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister looked at a series of data sets, including those produced by RICS Building Costs Information Service and the Tender Price Index of Social Housing, as well as real-life case studies, to identify what might be a challenging but achievable figure for the core costs of constructing a home.

One of the main purposes of the competition is to encourage greater efficiency in the construction process. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister anticipates that the creativity and innovation that exists within the industry will mean that this could be achieved in different ways. Thus it is not possible at present to break down anticipated dwelling building costs.

It is important to note that competition entries will be expected to include a range of dwellings of different types and sizes. While it is anticipated that approximately 30 per cent. of all the dwellings built through the competition will meet a target construction cost of £60,000, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will expect all of the dwellings built through the competition to achieve equivalent cost-efficiency.

Local Government Ombudsman

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many complaints were received by the Local Government Ombudsman in the last year for which figures are available; and how many were upheld. [219491]

Mr. Raynsford: In 2003–04, the last complete year for which figures are available, the Local Government Ombudsman received 18,982 complaints. Of the cases in which determinations were made, local settlements (where the council agrees to take action which the Ombudsman considers is a satisfactory response to the complaint) were made in 3,188 cases. Maladministration was found to have occurred in 180 cases. No or insufficient evidence of maladministration was found in 5,418 cases. In the remainder of cases, the complaints were not pursued, for example, because the complaint was outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction, or the council had not first been given a reasonable opportunity to deal with the complaint.
 
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Ordnance Survey Maps

Mr. Rendel: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what criteria Ordnance Survey uses in deciding whether to include school names on maps it produces. [219815]

Yvette Cooper: Ordnance Survey (OS) routinely records all school names within its national large-scale mapping. On smaller scale OS Explorer and OS Landranger map series, textual information is reduced to maintain clarity and legibility, and school names are not normally shown unless space permits or unless a school constitutes a tourist attraction.

Planning Appeal

Mr. Chope: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the reason was for the delay in (a) determining the appeal against refusal to grant consent to fell an oak tree at 8 Langley Close, St. Ives, Ringwood, Hampshire and (b) publication of the decision letter. [219774]

Keith Hill: Tree preservation order appeals are processed by officials in the Government Offices for the Regions, who issue the final decision on behalf of the Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister. There are several stages in the process, including an exchange of written representations between the appellant and the local planning authority, and arranging a site visit. In this case the appeal was submitted on 16 April 2004 and the site visit took place on 3 September 2004. There is currently a non-statutory timetable for appeal decisions to be issued within 16 weeks of the site visit. In this case a Planning Officer from the Government Office for the South West carried out the site visit on 3 September 2004, and he submitted his report on 9 November, with the decision being issued on 26 November, some 12 weeks after the site visit. While Government Offices would hope to be able to issue decisions within a shorter timescale whenever possible, this cannot always be achieved. In this particular case I do not consider there was any undue delay in determining the appeal.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister for what reason the inspector who carried out a site visit in connection with a tree preservation order appeal at 8 Langley Close, St. Ives, Ringwood, Hampshire on 3 September 2004 did not retain any notes taken during his visit; and if he will make a statement on the standard practice required in relation to the retention of site notes by the Planning Inspectorate. [219775]

Keith Hill: The inspector who held the site visit on 3 September was a Planning Officer from the Government Office for the South West (GOSW). Any notes that he took following the site visit were incorporated directly into the body of his report. He therefore decided that there was no longer any need to retain his notes once the appeal decision including the report had been issued. Government Office officials carrying out such site visits will in future be instructed to retain their site visit notes at least until the period for challenging the decision in the High Court has expired.

It is the standard practice for Inspectors of the Planning Inspectorate to retain their notes of any site visit for one year.
 
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