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12 Dec 2005 : Column 1724W—continued
Growth Areas Directorate
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister to whom the Head of the Department's Growth Areas Directorate reports. [34076]
Yvette Cooper: The Head of Growth Areas Division reports to the Director, Sustainable Communities Directorate.
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister with which division in the Department for Transport the Head of the Department's Growth Areas Directorate liaises on transport matters. [34078]
Yvette Cooper: Growth Areas Division liaises mainly with Regional and Local Transport Delivery Division in the Department for Transport.
Homelessness
Grant Shapps: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the number of individuals made homeless in the last 12 months following private landlords obtaining (a) an order of possession and (b) a bailiff's order from the courts. [32722]
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Yvette Cooper: The number of individuals made homeless due to an order of possession or a bailiff's order from the courts is not collected centrally. Information is collected quarterly from local authorities about the number of households accepted as homeless, in priority need and consequently owed a main homelessness duty. This includes reasons for loss of the last settled home, and distinguishes those involving rent arrears on a private dwelling, the ending of an assured shorthold tenancy, and other reasons for the loss of tied accommodation or a rented dwelling (including local authority owned accommodation). As shown in the following table, some 23,200 households became homeless for one of these reasons (around 20 per cent. of all acceptances) between July 2004 and June 2005.
(35)Households found to be eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in a priority need category, and consequently owed a main homelessness duty.
Source:
ODPM P1E homelessness returns (quarterly)
Housing
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of the (a) housing action trusts, (b) European Structural Fund Objective 3, (c) Connexions Grant, (d) Neighbourhood Renewal, (e) Housing Investment Programme and (f) London Development Agency grant funding stream from the Government office for London was made available to the London borough of Croydon in 2004–05. [35224]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The information is as follows.
(a) In 2004–05 the London borough of Croydon received no funding under the Housing Action Trusts programme. Only the Stonebridge Housing Action Trust in the London borough of Brent received funding in that year.
(b) Total ESF Objective 3 funding allocated to London in 2004–05 was £132,350,629, of which schemes in the London borough of Croydon received £5,051,705.
(c) Total funding of £73,014,270 was available for Connexions Partnerships in London in 2004–05. The South London Connexions Partnership, which covers the London boroughs of Croydon, Bromley, Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Sutton, received £10,842,518 in 2004–05. Some of this funding was allocated to projects working across the sub-region, from which Croydon would have benefited, while the South London Connexions Partnership allocated £2,393,051 specifically to Connexions services in Croydon.
(d) In 2004–05 the London borough of Croydon received Neighbourhood Renewal Funding of £824,387. Total Neighbourhood Renewal Fund for London 2004–05 was £110,087,967.
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(e) Croydon received Housing Investment Programme funding of £4.53 million in 2004–05, from a total of £208 million allocated to London boroughs on a formulaic Generalised Needs Index basis in that year.
(f) In 2004–05 Government grant to the London Development Agency was £329,337,081. The total funding made available by the London Development Agency to projects in the London borough of Croydon was £1,073,112 in that year. In addition the London Development Agency funds a number of areas of work which benefit the whole of London, including work to promote tourism, employment and business, social inclusion and regeneration.
Integrated Regional Strategy
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the cost was of producing the Integrated Regional Strategy for the East of England; how many copies have been made; and how many copies were downloaded from the internet each month since it was published. [35169]
Yvette Cooper: The total cost of producing the Integrated Regional Strategy (IRS) in the East of England is £12,601, including the 1,000 copies that have been printed to date.
It is impossible to state how many copies of the IRS have been downloaded from the East of England Regional Assembly's website. The web page that contains the link to the document has received 3,020 hits since publication.
Local Government
Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to review the operation of procedures for deciding who is in a politically restricted post in local government. [35115]
Mr. Woolas: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister consulted last year on a review of the regulatory framework governing the political activities of local government employees. We intend to publish our conclusions on this shortly.
Mobile Phone Companies
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he plans to publish Professor Phil Allmendiger's report with Arup on codes of best practice for mobile phone companies. [19683]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister commissioned the University of Reading and Arup to undertake an independent study to assess the impact that the Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development has had since its introduction, how local authorities have implemented the code and how the public perceives its operation. Plans are to publish this report in the new year.
Mobile Telephone Masts
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he plans to make the Arup report on mobile telephone masts publicly available. [32381]
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Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister commissioned the University of Reading and Arup to undertake an independent study to assess the impact that the Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development has had since its introduction, how local authorities have implemented the code and how the public perceives its operation. Plans are to publish this report in the new year.
Planning
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the average length of time to process a (a) planning application, (b) major planning application and (c) planning appeal in (i) 1997 and (ii) the latest year for which figures are available. [33501]
Yvette Cooper: The information available from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on the time taken by local authorities to process planning applications are the percentages of applications for planning permission and related consents which are decided within eight weeks, between eight and 13 weeks and in more than 13 weeks. The statistics are used to monitor performance against the government targets that 60 per cent. of applications for major development should be decided within 13 weeks, that 65 per cent. of applications for minor development should be decided within eight weeks, and that 80 per cent. of applications for other development (predominantly householder applications) should be decided within eight weeks.
In 1996–97, local authorities determined on average 57 per cent. of major applications within 13 weeks, 57 per cent. of minor applications within eight weeks and 69 per cent. of other applications within eight weeks.
In the year ending June 2005, the latest data available, local authorities determined on average 61 per cent. of major applications within 13 weeks, 69 per cent. of minor applications within eight weeks and 84 per cent. of other applications within eight weeks.
The Planning Inspectorate's performance in processing a planning appeal is measured against ministerial targets which are reviewed annually.
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