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7 Mar 2005 : Column 1541W—continued
High Hedges
Mr. Horam: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he expects antisocial behaviour legislation relating to high hedges to be implemented before Easter. [219694]
Phil Hope:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Solihull (Mr. Taylor) on 1 March 2005, Official Report, column 1127W.
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Housing (Fylde)
Mr. Jack: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what consultations are being conducted between the management of the Northern Way and local authorities in Fylde on targets for future house building; and when they began. [220265]
Keith Hill: The regional spatial strategy for the North West is currently being reviewed by the North West Regional Assembly. Key elements of this review will be the appropriate level of housing provision in the region and links with the Northern Way.
Housing Stock
Lynne Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which local authorities in England have decided their stock options appraisal in favour of (a) stock transfer, (b) arm's length management organisation, (c) private finance initiative and (d) stock retention by the council; how many homes each authority has in each case; which authorities have yet to advise his Office of their intentions; and how many homes they own in each case. [220451]
Keith Hill: 58 local authorities have had whole stock Options Appraisals signed off by the relevant Government Office. The tables, made available in the Library of the House, show which options they have chosen.
192 local authorities were subject to the requirement to have an Options Appraisal signed off by the relevant Government Office. Other authorities will have chosen an option prior to the introduction of this requirement.
Some local authorities have opted for more than one solution for their stock and they are listed separately, with the options they have chosen, in the mixed model table available in the Library of the House. Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is never a whole stock solution, and so authorities who have chosen PFI are also found in this table.
Local Government
Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the 20 least populous lower tier local authorities in England are, measured by population per hectare; what the average annual earnings per capita in each of those local authorities was in the last year for which figures are available; what the Band D council tax is in 2004–05 in each of those authorities; and what percentage of average annual earnings Band D council tax represents in each authority. [220676]
Mr. Raynsford: The information requested is tabled as follows. The table includes the 24 least populous lower tier local authorities under the definition used in the question so as to include all authorities with an average at the lower level threshold of 0.8 people per hectare.
n/a=not available, because the earnings figure for West Devon is unreliable.
(50)Population figures are ONS mid-year estimates for 2003.
(51)Figures for all employee jobs where the person has been in post for at least a year, taken from the 2004 ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (including supplementary information). The figures are for residents of the area shown.
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Local Government Finance
Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list those local authorities for whom the revenue budget settlement for 2005–06 has been based on 1991 Census data; and if he will make a statement. [218373]
Mr. Raynsford: The main indicators used in the Formula Spending Share formulae are the population estimates. The population estimates from mid-2001 onwards have been based on the 2001 Census. They are then adjusted for births, deaths and both internal and external migration. The population estimates used in the Local Government Finance Settlements from 2003–04 onwards have been based on the 2001 Census.
The formulae also use other socio-demographic indicators derived from the Census, for example population sparsity and population density. 1991 Census data is used for these other indicators in the 2005–06 Formula Spending Share formulae for Education, Personal Social Services, Police, Highway Maintenance and Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services. This Census data is not used in either the Fire or the Capital Financing Formula Spending Share formulae, and is therefore not used in the calculation of RSG for single service fire authorities only, i.e. LFEPA, metropolitan fire authorities and combined shire fire authorities.
I announced on 21 July 2004 that we would not be amending the other socio-demographic indicators to incorporate 2001 Census data in the 2005–06 settlement (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 we have introduced to provide funding stability for authorities.
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Further research is being undertaken on the formula changes needed to incorporate the 2001 Census data into the Formula Spending Share formulae.
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.
London Safety Plan
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many responses to the public consultation that the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority has conducted on the Draft London Safety Plan (a) supported and (b) opposed the proposals; and if he will make a statement. [219787]
Mr. Raynsford: I understand the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority's 12 week consultation on the Draft London Safety Plan ended on Monday 7 February 2005. Responses from stakeholders are currently being analysed and will be reported to the Authority meeting on 17 March 2005, at which time the Authority will consider the final Plan in the light of theviews expressed.
Select Committee Report
Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on progress with the implementation of the recommendations of the Ninth Report of session 2003–04 of the Committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions; and if he will make a statement. [220691]
Mr. Raynsford:
The Government's response to the Committee's recommendations was set out in Cm 6321, presented to the House on 11 October. Copies are available in the Library of the House. The response said that the Committee's report would be a valuable input
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to the independent inquiry by Sir Michael Lyons into local government funding. The response also said that, in view of that inquiry, it would not be appropriate for the Government to take a final view on many of the Committee's conclusions and recommendations at that stage.
Targets
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to promote better policy integration nationally, regionally and locally; [219179]
(2) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to work with Departments to help them meet their public service agreement floor targets for neighbourhood renewal and social inclusion; [219180]
(3) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to reduce the persistent gap in growth rates between the English regions over the long-term; [219183]
(4) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to improve the delivery and value for money of local services by introducing comprehensive performance assessments and action plans; [219184]
(5) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the Public Service Agreement target to secure progressive improvements in local authorities' scores in performance assessments; [219185]
(6) whether the public service agreement target to secure overall annual improvements in the cost effectiveness of local services by 2 per cent. or more was met in 2004; [219186]
(7) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target to assist local government in achieving 100 per cent. capability in electronic delivery of priority services in ways that customers will use will be met by 2005; [219187]
(8) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to achieve a better balance between housing availability and the demand for housing in all English regions while protecting valuable countryside around our towns, cities and in the green belt and the sustainability of existing towns and cities; [219188]
(9) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target for all local planning authorities to have completed local development frameworks by 2006 will be met; [219189]
(10) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target for all local planning authorities to perform at or above best value targets for development control by 2006 will be met; [219190]
(11) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target to bring all social housing into decent condition by 2010 will be met; [219191]
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(12) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target to increase the proportion of private housing in decent condition occupied by vulnerable groups by 2010 will be met; [219192]
(13) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to deliver better services; [219193]
(14) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to promote high-quality, customer-focused services; [219195]
(15) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target to reduce the number of accidental fire-related deaths in the home by 20 per cent. by 2010 will be met; [219198]
(16) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target to reduce the numberof deliberate fires by 10 per cent. by 2010 will be met; [219199]
(17) what assessment he has made of his Department's success in meeting the public service agreement target to provide the opportunity by the end of this Parliament for a referendum on regional government in regions where there is a demand for it. [219233]
Yvette Cooper: Performance against all the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's public service agreement (PSA) targets are reported in our departmental reports. Since 2002, performance has also been reported in our autumn performance reports. For these PSA targets, set during the 2002 spending review, the most recent assessment of progress was published in the autumn performance report 2004 (Cm 6421, published December 2004). The next assessment will be given in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's annual report for 2004–05, due to be published in spring 2005.
The SDA targets, revised in 2003, for accidental fire related deaths and deliberate fires were reported against in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's annual report 2004 and will next be reported against in the 2005 annual report. From April 2005, these SDA targets have been included in a new PSA target adopted under the 2004 spending review and will then be reported against in both the future autumn performance and annual reports.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to narrow the gap in health, education, crime, worklessness, housing and liveability outcomes between the most deprived areas and the rest of England by 2010; [219181]
(2) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to make sustainable improvements in the economic performance of all English regions by 2008; [219182]
(3) what recent assessment he has made of whether the public service agreement target to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of local government in leading and delivering services to all communities by 2008, will be met; [219200]
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(4) what recent assessment has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to ensure that the planning system delivers sustainable development outcomes at national, regional and local levels; [219201]
(5) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the public service agreement target to lead the delivery of cleaner, safer and greener public spaces. [219202]
Yvette Cooper: These public service agreement (PSA) targets, set during the 2004 spending review do not become live until April 2005. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister shall report progress against these targets in our autumn performance report for 2005, and then in subsequent annual and autumn performance reports.
Work began last year preparing for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's new and revised PSA targets and technical notes, setting out how we were to measure progress against these targets. These have been published on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website at: (http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_about/documents/divisionhomepage/ 031997.hcsp).
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has also recently published its five-year plans, Sustainable Communities: People Places and Prosperity (Cm 6425) and Sustainable Communities: Homes for All (Cm6424), which set out how we will be tackling major challenges over the next five years.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the Public Service Agreement target to devolve decision making to the most effective level; [219194]
(2) what recent progress has been made towards achieving the Public Service Agreement target to clarify the roles and functions of local government and its relationship with central Government. [219197]
Mr. Raynsford: These are both elements of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Strategic Priority 4 which is underpinned by PSA targets 1 and 4. The case for greater devolution both to and through councils is being taken forward in the work that we are undertaking on the development of a 10-year vision for local government, which picks up the recommendations of the report produced last year by HM Treasury and the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit on devolving decision making. We have published a number of discussion papers, including proposals for piloting local area agreements, and we intend to publish a further document on the development of a new performance framework shortly.
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