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15 Nov 2005 : Column 1111W—continued
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Departmental Priorities
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his Department's priorities for 2006–07. [28064]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The aim of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, (ODPM) is to help create sustainable communities, working with other Government Departments, local councils, businesses, the voluntary sector, and communities themselves.
We have five year plans, a challenging set of public service agreement targets and strategic priorities which set the overall framework, as set out in our Annual Report for 2004–05 (Cm 6526). They are published in the ODPM Business Plan for 2005–06 which can be found on the ODPM website.
We have recently completed a stock take of our policies and programmes to ensure that we have full alignment across these programmes, to maximise our impact in delivery, and to sharpen our focus in advance of the Comprehensive Spending Review in 2007. The conclusions are set out in the core narrative on the ODPM website.
English Partnerships
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when English Partnerships' future national programme for the years 2005–06 to 2008–09 is expected to be announced. [27509]
Yvette Cooper:
Discussions are currently under way with English Partnerships on their future national programme and priorities for the years 2005–06 to 2008–09. Once these planning round discussions have been finalised, which is likely to be in the next two months, English Partnerships corporate priorities will be published.
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Funding for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister programmes, including English Partnerships, for 2008–09 to 2010–11 will be dependent on the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007.
Free Bus Passes
Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to answer the letter from the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham of 21 September regarding payments to Adur council for extension of free bus travel for pensioners. [28231]
Mr. Woolas: I replied to the hon. Member on 10 November.
Housing
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the percentage change has been in average weekly rent in constant prices in (a) the local authority and (b) the registered social landlord sector in each (i) London borough and (ii) English region since 2001. [24269]
Yvette Cooper: Average weekly rent by local authority district and region are published for the local authority sector and the registered social landlord sector on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website in Tables 702 and Tables 704 respectively. The links for these tables are given as follows:
Table 702: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/embedded_object.asp?id=1156266
Table 704: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/embedded_object.asp?id:=1156268
These tables will be updated with information for 2005 late this month. The percentage changes from March 2001 to March 2004 are given in the Tables:
Notes:
1. RSL data based on data collected by the Housing Corporation via the annual Regulatory and Statistical Return (RSR) LA data based on unaudited returns from the Second Subsidy Claim form and are provisional for 2004.
2. Constant prices based on the Retail Price Index.
3. Average Weekly Rents in Both Sectors are affected by Large Scale Voluntary Transfers (LSVT).
4. LSVT": all or most of the local authority stock has been transferred to the RSL sector, so an average rent is no longer appropriate.
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Notes:
1. RSL data based on data collected by the Housing Corporation via the annual Regulatory and Statistical Return (RSR) LA data based on un-audited returns from the Second Subsidy Claim form and are provisional for 2004.
2. Constant prices based on the Retail Price Index.
3. Average Weekly Rents in Both Sectors are affected by Large Scale Voluntary Transfers (LSVT). If Large Scale Voluntary Transfers have taken place the average weekly rents may be affected by the change in the mix of the stock.
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Jim Cousins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many households were on the housing register of each local housing authority in the north-east in each year from 2000 to 2005; and what that number of households was as a percentage of all households. [26187]
Yvette Cooper: The available information is in a table and has been placed in the Library of the House.
Local authorities in England report the numbers of households on their housing waiting list as at 1 April in their annual Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix returns. Local authorities sometimes maintain a common waiting list with the housing association/s in their district. However, information is not held centrally where a housing association maintains a separate waiting list to the local authority.
Source:
The number of households on the waiting lists from ODPM's Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix return. Figures are as at 1 April.
Total household figures from ODPM's 2003 mid-year household estimates.
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Mr. Betts: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will commission research to update the affordability index used to determine the areas included within the scope of the Housing (Right-to-Buy) (Limits on Discounts) (Amendments) Order 2003. [26238]
Yvette Cooper: The Housing (Right-to-Buy) (Limits on Discount) (Amendment) Order 2003 came into force on 27 March 2003. It reduced to 16,000 the maximum right-to-buy discount available to tenants in 41 areas in London and the South of England that appeared to be under the greatest housing market pressure in terms of high levels of homelessness and high property prices. The Government is keeping the position on maximum right-to-buy discounts generally under review.
Mike Penning: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the cost of additional public services which will be required by people living in the proposed new housing in Hertfordshire. [26348]
Yvette Cooper: The Government's approach is to ensure that infrastructure, including public services, is provided in step with growth, as plans for individual growth locations are developed. There are three elements to this: first, to ensure that main public expenditure programmes, such as health and education, are sufficiently flexible and responsive to the needs of growing communities; second, to secure an appropriate contribution from developers and private investors; and third, to provide additional support through growth areas funds, including the Community Infrastructure Fund.
Hertfordshire and the rest of the East of England have already benefited from a significant increase in identifiable public expenditure, receiving £28.1 billion in 2003–04—a 26 per cent. real terms increase on 1999–2000. In particular between 1999–2000 and 2003–04:
The East of England Regional Assembly has submitted its draft Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England to Government. Following extensive public consultation, that draft strategy is now subject to an independent Examination in Public, which began on 1 November and runs to early March 2006.
It is for the Examination in Public, after considering all the evidence and representations before it, to make recommendations to Government on the appropriate long-term strategy for the scale and location of development in the East of England.
Once Government have received the recommendations of the Examination in Public, and consulted on any changes it proposes, the final strategy will be issued. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is already engaged in discussions with partners on infrastructure and growth issues in the East of England and we will develop plans further in the light of the final strategy. Public service providers will then have the long-term certainty they need in which to plan future levels of service provision. Detailed development decisions need to be made at the local level as part of the preparation of local development documents.
Jim Cousins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) demolitions and (b) empty properties (i) across all sectors and (ii) in council housing there were in each local housing authority in the North East in each year from 2000 to 2005. [26186]
Yvette Cooper:
The available information is in a table and has been placed in the Library of the House.
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(1) Indicates that no data was submitted.
Note:
n/a means data not yet ready to publish.
Source:
Housing Flows Reconciliation return
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(2) Indicates that no data was submitted.
Note:
Zero LA figures indicates council became LSVT.
Source:
Council Tax Base 1 (CTB1) return for all dwellings from 2003 to 2005, all others from Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) return.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many of the planned 75,000 social rented houses planned to be built by 2007–08 will be provided by local authorities. [22253]
Yvette Cooper: Of the estimated 75,000 social rented houses to be provided by 2007–08 we estimate that up to some 3,000 will be provided by local authorities.
Since 1990 registered social landlords (RSLs) have been the main providers of additional affordable housing. They are generally able to deliver more units than local authorities for a given amount of public subsidy because of their ability to access private finance.
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