House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 6 Feb 2006 (pt 43)

6 Feb 2006 : Column 919W—continued

Kettering General Hospital

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what discussions his Department's growth areas directorate has had with the Department of Health about the expansion of Kettering General Hospital to accompany local housebuilding growth up to 2021. [48362]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has been working closely with the Department of Health to ensure that health funding takes account of planned housing growth. The discussions have been at a strategic level and have not touched upon the specific plans for Kettering General Hospital.

Significant extra resources are being provided for health services in the growth areas. Already an extra £20 million of revenue funding per annum has been provided for primary care trusts in the growth areas (2004–05 and 2005–06) and an extra £20 million of capital resources allocated to strategic health authorities in the growth areas (2005–06).

Kettering General Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Trust has benefited from extra resources. In May 2005 the trust was granted some £7.4 million (£5 million from the primary care trust and £2.4 million in capital from the strategic health authority) to tackle the growth in demand for services. This has enabled the trust to employ 164 extra nurses and 32 extra doctors. The trust has invested £2 million in a 40-bed ward and five-bed Accident and Emergency observation ward. The trust is building a £16.5 million treatment centre and an ambulatory care centre is currently in development.

Future health funding will also take into account planned housing growth. The Department of Health's announcement on primary care trust revenue funding on 9 February 2005 included a growth area adjustment. Amongst other factors, this will lead to the primary care trusts in the growth areas receiving funding increases of £860 million in 2006–07 and £970 million in 2007–08 (increases over the two years of 20.8 per cent. compared to a national average of 19.5 per cent.). Government is also giving priority to growth areas for future LIFT (local improvement finance trust) schemes. This private finance initiative programme will create long-term public/private partnerships to secure continued investment in health care in local areas.

Living Spaces Grant

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to reinstate the living spaces grant. [48699]

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Yvette Cooper: Living Spaces was set up as an innovative approach to helping communities make tangible and lasting changes to their local environment. Living Spaces is a three-year programme with funding due to end in 2005–06. Due to the large demand from community groups for support from Living Spaces, funding for the programme has been exhausted and, therefore, there are currently no plans to re-open the scheme for fresh applications or extend the scheme.

The lessons learnt from the success of Living Spaces will help to inform future policies and programmes that seek to involve local people in improving the quality of their local communities. For example, a priority of the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme will be to increase the capacity of communities to plan, develop and run projects that improve their local environments.

Local Government Reform

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which Government Department is responsible for Government policy on the potential introduction of parish councils in London. [47873]

Mr. Woolas: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister would be responsible for the removal of the barrier in current legislation to the creation of parish councils in London.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate his Department has made of the (a) set-up costs and (b) running costs of parish councils in London. [47888]

Mr. Woolas: None. The costs of setting up and running parish councils in London will be a matter for the London boroughs and any new parish councils established.

Lyons Inquiry

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 30 November 2005, Official Report, column 585W, on the Lyons Inquiry, from which public sector organisations the Lyons Inquiry has received submissions. [47866]

Mr. Woolas: Sir Michael Lyons published an interim report and consultation paper on 15 December. This report lists organisations who have responded to the inquiry. Links to representations are on the inquiry's website at: www.lyonsinquiry.org.

Migrants (Accommodation)

Mr. Pelling: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what provision has been made in housing targets for homes for migrants from outside the United Kingdom over the next 20 years. [46075]

Yvette Cooper: There is no specific provision for international migrants. Assessments of future housing requirements are informed by demographic projections that take account of international migration as one of several factors influencing the growth in numbers of households.

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Mobile Telephone Masts

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the planning applications which have been (a) refused and (b) granted on appeal for mobile phone masts in West Lancashire. [45135]

Yvette Cooper: The information requested is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

However, during September and October every year the mobile network operators write to every local authority with details of their network rollout for the year ahead. When they write to the local authority they also provide details of their existing sites within the local authority area. You may want to contact the network operators for copies of their plans.

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many new mobile telephone masts have been erected under permitted development rights in each year since 1997 in each London borough; and if he will make a statement. [47406]

Yvette Cooper: The information requested on the numbers of mobile phone masts erected under permitted development rights is not held centrally, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

New Deal for Communities

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has for future funding for the Kensington new deal for communities project. [47670]

Mr. Woolas: Kensington Regeneration is a 10-year new deal for communities (NDC) programme to deliver transformational change to residents. The Government remain committed to the long-term investment in the NDC programme and the Kensington NDC area will benefit from £61,908,490 between 2000–01 and 2010–11. The NDC has already made good progress across the key thematic areas and I am sure this work will be sustained in the future.

Pensions (Local Authority)

Keith Vaz: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of council tax was allocated to pay local authority employee pensions in each local authority in 2005–06. [47562]

Mr. Woolas: It is not possible to say how much of council tax income can be attributed to pay for local authority employee pensions. This is because it is not possible to say whether any item of revenue expenditure is funded from council tax or from the Government grants and business rates that also finance revenue expenditure.

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Pension costs for local authorities in England in 2004–05 are estimated at £5.3 billion. This is 6.6 per cent. of total revenue expenditure by local authorities in England. ¹ ²

These proportions are not available for every local authority individually as the SAR is a sample survey of authorities.

¹ Note: Both figures are presented on a non-Financial Reporting Standard 17 (FRS17) basis.

2 Source: 2004–05 Revenue Out-turn (RO) forms, 2004–05 Subjective Analysis Returns (SAR) submitted by local authorities to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

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