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31 Jan 2006 : Column 425W—continued

East of England Plan

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he plans to meet representatives of the East of England Regional Assembly to discuss the results of the examination in public of the draft East of England Plan when it is concluded on 16 March. [46063]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The normal practice is that any dialogue required between the Regional Assembly and my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister in the
 
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period following the Examination in Public and prior to issue of the Secretary of State my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister's proposed changes would be by written communication. The guidance provides for two types of occasions after the publication of the Panel Report where the Secretary of State my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister may need to meet with representatives of the Regional Assembly:

Such a meeting would need to be the subject of a publicly available minute. As yet, no such meeting is envisaged.

Flag Masts (Planning Permission)

Mr. Burns: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether planning permission is required for domestic households to erect flag masts on their properties; and if he will make a statement. [43482]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 24 January 2006]: Planning permission is required for domestic households to erect flag poles on their properties. The exceptions: are vertical flag poles flying a national flag; flag poles flying flags as advertisements under Class 7 of Schedule 3 of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992; flag poles flying all other flags that have the express consent of the local planning authority to be flown.

Formula Spending Share (Peterborough)

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what account has been taken of demographic changes since May 2004 in respect of the allocation of the formula spending share to Peterborough city council for 2005–06, with particular reference to migrants from EU accession countries. [46006]

Mr. Woolas: The 2005–06 formula spending shares announced in a written ministerial statement on 27 January 2005, Official Report, column 24–25WS, used the mid-2003 population estimates. Therefore population changes since May 2004 would not have been taken into account in the calculation of the formula spending shares for 2005–06.

From 2006–07, projections of population published by the Office for National Statistics will be used in the Local Government Finance Settlement as the key driver of population.

Funding (Lancashire)

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what (a) revenue and (b) capital funding his Department has allocated to (a) West Lancashire district council and (b) Lancashire county council in each of the last 10 years. [45128]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) was established following the Machinery of Government changes on 29 May 2002.
 
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The following tables set out payments made to (a) West Lancashire district council and (b) Lancashire county council since 2002–03
(a) Funding to West Lancashire district council

£ million
2002–032003–042004–05Total
Revenue8.3028.8368.66825.806
Capital0.4830.5421.4502.475


(b) Funding to Lancashire county council

£ million
2002–032003–042004–05Total
Revenue652.099714.415735.5712102.085
Capital0.5612.1431.4944.198


 
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Government Office for London

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the programmes managed by the Government office for London in 2005–06; and what the total funding for each was. [47514]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Government office for London (GOL) delivers policies and programmes in London on behalf of 10 central Government Departments. Its programme budget in 2005–06 totals £3.3 billion, of which £2.6 billion is grants to the Greater London Authority and its functional bodies. GOL leads on negotiating local area agreements on behalf of Departments, it handles planning casework, it leads on multi-agency work to improve arrangements for the resettlement of London's ex-offenders and preparing and testing plans for emergencies (the work of the London resilience team based in GOL).
Sponsor Department2005–06 programmeAllocation for 2005–06 (£)
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)Single Community Programme (aka Community Empowerment Networks CEN)8,180,694
ODPMDisabled Facilities Grant15,952,000
ODPMGreater London Authority General Grant37,493,000
ODPMGLA Preparation Costs4,000
ODPMLee Valley Regional Park SCA458,000
ODPMHousing Action Trusts7,850,000
ODPMSingle Regional Housing Pot (HIP element)215,210,000
ODPMPrivate Sector Renewal Discretionary Pot (Housing)11,100,000
ODPMLA Regeneration Pot (Housing)58,571,000
ODPMNeighbourhood Renewal Fund128,489,841
ODPMNeighbourhood Renewal—Skills and Knowledge391,327
ODPMNew Deal for Communities72,000,000
ODPMNeighbourhood Management2,090,000
ODPMStreet Crime Wardens3,736,475
ODPMLiveability Fund3,338,333
ODPMLocal Area Growth Initiative (LEGI)2,355,000
ODPMEuropean Regional Development Fund (Objective 2)31,480,916
ODPMERDF URBAN1,275,877
Department for Transport (DfT)Greater London Authority Transport Grant2,161,015,000
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)Sustainable Development Regional Publicity Budget46,000
DEFRASustainable Farming and Food Fund50,000
DEFRAPublic Sector Food Procurement Initiative20,000
DEFRARegional Waste Fund50,000
Department for Education and Skills (DFES)Community Champions556,968
DFESConnexions Partnership Grant Funding74,437,563
DFESPositive Activities For Young People Total (including main project, Uproject, key workers, key workers training and devt, secondees)14,920,362
DFESTransforming Youth Work Performance Improvement Fund1,585,660
DFESTYWPIF Secondees47,000
DFESMillennium Volunteers1,852,984
DFESVocational and Work Related Learning300,000
DFESTestbed Learning Communities67,000
DFESRegional Networking and Development Budget10,000
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)London Development Agency Grants374,053,000
DTIRegional Energy Strategy Delivery Budget195,355
Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)European Structural Fund (ESF) Objective 23,104,118
DWPEuropean Structural Fund (ESF) Objective 375,141,688
Home OfficeBasic Command Unit Fund9,952,587
Home OfficeBuilding Safer Communities Fund11,880,386
Home OfficeAnti-Social Behaviour Grant825,000
Home OfficeGun Crime (Recovered Criminal Assets Fund)260,000
Home OfficeRecovered Assets Fund (RAF)100,000
Home OfficeHome Office Directors' Allocation Fund1,243,300
Home OfficeBusiness Crime Advisers52,000
Home OfficeDrug Strategy Partnership Support Grant2,280,581
Home OfficeAdditional Capital Funding200,000
Home OfficePartnership Business Model106,176
Home OfficeDomestic Violence Grant300,000
Home OfficeTackling Violent Crime300,000
Home OfficeChangeUp Programme5,680,693
Home OfficeVoluntary Sector Regional Networks116,000
Home OfficeConnecting Communities1,283,398
Total3,342,009,282

 
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Hereditaments

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the Department's definition of a corporeal hereditament is for council tax valuation purposes. [47140]

Mr. Woolas: The term 'corporeal hereditament' is not one defined for council tax valuation purposes.

Housing

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what guidance he has given to the South West Regional Assembly on the numbers of new houses to be built in (a) the South West, (b) Gloucestershire and (c) the Cotswolds. [45901]

Yvette Cooper: Current Government guidance on the number of new additional housing required in the South West for the period 1996 to 2016 is contained in Regional Planning Guidance for the South West (RPG10) published in 2001. RPG10 includes a figure for Gloucestershire County but no figures for any district council such as Cotswolds. The South West figure in RPG 10 is 20,200 net additional houses per annum and 2,400pa for Gloucestershire.

The South West Regional Assembly (SWRA), as the Regional Planning Body, is now preparing a draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) as required by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The RSS will replace RPG10; cover the period to 2026; and set out District housing requirements. It is understood that a draft RSS will be submitted by the SWRA for public consultation later this year. No guidance has been given by Government to the SWRA as to what specific housing numbers should be proposed in the draft RSS. Government guidance on the content of the RSS is contained in PPS11 Regional Spatial Strategies" and in PPG3 Housing" on planning for housing.

Mr. Purchase: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he will publish the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Determination 2006–07 Consultation Paper. [47033]

Yvette Cooper: The draft Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Determination 2006–07 was issued for consultation on 7 November 2005.

Following the conclusion of the consultation, and taking account of representations from stakeholders, including Wolverhampton, the final Determination was published on 20 December 2005.

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the effect of his decision to replace local authority council house valuations by valuations by registered social landlords. [40398]

Yvette Cooper: It is Government policy that social rents should be restructured and that over time tenants in social housing should pay similar rents for similar properties regardless of landlord.
 
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The three-year review of rent restructuring policy, which reported in 2004, made a number of recommendations. One was to use the same formula for restructuring local authority rents as that which is currently used for restructuring Registered Social Landlords (RSL) rents, and adopt the Retail Price Index (RPI) as the inflation measure used in calculating local authority rent increases. Individual property valuations are unchanged, but the formula used to calculate rents now uses the average 1999 value for RSL properties.

We announced on 7 November that we would introduce in full the recommendations made in the review in 2006–07, reinforcing the steps already taken to create a fair and transparent rent setting system in the social rented sector. We have provided additional protection for council tenants by capping at 5 per cent. the average cash increase in rents in any local authority for each of the next two years. This is in addition to the caps and limits that have been in place since the policy was first introduced.

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) when he expects to announce the Housing Corporation's National Affordable Housing Programme in the south east region for (a) 2006–07 and (b) 2007–08; [47493]

(2) what action his Department has taken to increase the proportion of family-sized social rented homes to be built in the Housing Corporation's National Affordable Housing Programme in the south east region in (a) 2006–07 and (b) 2007–08. [47492]

Yvette Cooper: The Housing Corporation is currently assessing bids for affordable housing schemes planned to start in 2006–08 and discussing with regional housing boards how these will achieve the priorities set out in the regional housing strategies.

A decision on the overall programme, and its regional components is expected to be announced in March 2006 and announcements on individual allocations will be made subsequent to that.


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