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5 Jul 2005 : Column 291W—continued
Trams and Guided Buses
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the (a) tram and (b) guided bus systems that have been opened in each year since 1997. [8445]
Derek Twigg: The information is as follows.
WALES
Computer Crime
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many cases of computer (a) hacking, (b) fraud and (c) theft his Department recorded in each year since 2001–02; and for each year, on how many occasions computer systems have been illegally accessed by computer hackers (i) within and (ii) outside his Department. [7184]
Mr. Hain: During this period, there have been no recorded cases of computer hacking, fraud or theft.
There have been no recorded cases of computer systems being illegally accessed by computer hackers within or outside the Department.
Consultants
Mrs. Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to issue guidance on effective commissioning for those in the public and voluntary sectors who are commissioning work from external consultants. [7025]
Mr. Hain: The Wales Office has no plans to issue guidance on effective commissioning for public and voluntary sectors who are commissioning work from external consultants.
The Office of Government Commerce offers best practice advice to the public and voluntary sector through its web-based product, the Successful Delivery Toolkit.
Council Tax Revaluation
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether transitional relief in the council tax revaluation in Wales was subsidised by central Government. [7437]
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Mr. Hain: Following revaluation and re-banding of domestic properties in Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government have introduced a transitional relief scheme to ensure that no household's council tax bill will rise by more than one band in each of the first three years. This will be funded by the Welsh Assembly from within their departmental expenditure limit and has not been subsidised by central Government.
M4 (Opening Dates)
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the opening dates of sections of the M4 in Wales since 1975; and if he will list the opening dates of sections of the (a) A55 and (b) A470 in Wales between 1975 and 1998. [6688]
Mr. Hain: The available information is set out in the following table:
Taxis
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much the Department has spent on taxis in each of the last five years. [6490]
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Mr. Hain: The cost to the Department for taxis was:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| Cost of taxis | |
| 2000–01 | 1,266 |
| 2001–02 | 2,851 |
| 2002–03 | 796 |
| 2003–04 | 1,154 |
| 2004–05 | 625 |
Welsh Assembly Electoral System
Mr. Heald:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the Government's plans to
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amend the electoral system for the Welsh Assembly to party list candidates also running for constituency seats. [9813]
Mr. Hain: I made an oral statement on 15 June 2005, Official Report, column 263, on the White Paper Better Governance for Wales"
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Affordable Homes
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many affordable homes were provided in each London borough in each of the last five years. [8078]
Yvette Cooper: The number of affordable homes provided on behalf of each London borough in each of the last five financial years are shown as follows:
Source:
Housing Corporation
(Includes new build dwellings, acquisitions and refurbishments)
The numbers include homes for both rent and low cost home ownership provided through new build dwellings, acquisitions and refurbishments via the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme including Key Worker Living in 2004–05 and exclude the Transitional Local Authority Social Housing Grant, the Starter Homes Initiative (not delivered through the Approved Development Programme) and S106 agreements where there was no Housing Corporation funding.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many of the new homes to be built under the first-time buyers initiative he expects will be available at a price of £60,000. [6452]
Yvette Cooper:
The first-time buyers initiative is a proposal being developed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and English Partnership with the aim of providing 15,000 affordable homes by 2010 across England on a shared equity basis. It is one element in our package of proposals for increasing access to low cost home ownership as set out in our consultation
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paper Homebuy—expanding the opportunity to own" published in April 2005. Half of the homes provided will be for key workers and the other half will be for individuals and families who would not be in a position to own their own homes without help. English Partnerships is now developing a delivery plan for the initiative.
The Design for Manufacture Competition was announced on 26 September 2004 by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister and launched formally on 1 April 2005 to show how it is possible to build a high-quality home for £60,000. The figure of £60,000 relates to a target construction cost for building a two bedroom home and does not reflect the development cost or sale price.
English Partnerships is running the Design for Manufacture competition on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The development sites for successful bidders will be provided by English Partnerships and other public bodies. English Partnerships anticipate that construction of homes will start in early 2006 with some completions by the end of 2006. The competition will aim to provide 1,000 homes all to eco-homes very good standard and will include a mix of housing types and tenures as defined by site specific design briefs. We anticipate that about 30 per cent. of the homes built will contribute to the first-time buyers initiative.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what additional funding he is making available in (a) 2006–07 and (b) 2007–08 to support (i) the social homebuy scheme, (ii) new build homebuy, (iii) open market homebuy, (iv) joint equity loans with mortgage lenders scheme and (v) the first-time buyers initiative. [6453]
Yvette Cooper: The proposals on which we are currently consulting—Homebuy—expanding the opportunity to own" (April 2005) seek to provide simpler, fairer home ownership opportunities for more people, while protecting the supply of social housing. The consultation period closes on 24 June.
Resources will be found from within existing Spending Review 2004 budgets in order to fund the outcome of the consultation.
We announced in March the split between Regional Housing Boards of the £5 billion available over the two years 2006–07 and 2007–08. We are due to receive updated Regional Housing Strategies and advice on regional housing investment priorities including funding for low cost home ownership by the end of June.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the number of properties built for sale under the key worker housing scheme that have not yet been sold; and if he will make a statement. [5174]
Yvette Cooper
[holding answer 27 June 2005]: The Key Worker Living programme was launched in March 2004 and the new build properties for sale are coming onto the market in phases. As at 31 May 2005, the number of properties completed and available for sale through shared ownership and new build homebuy under Key Worker Living (KWL) was 574. 41 of these have been sold. Monitoring information provided to the
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Housing Corporation by developing RSLs only details when a KWL property is sold. There is no information on how many of these units are currently under offer.
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