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24 Apr 2006 : Column 937W—continued
Stock Transfers
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much was allocated for (a) arm's length management organisations (ALMOs), (b) large-scale voluntary transfers (LSVTs), (c) debt write-off from LSVTs and ALMOs and (d) housing action trusts in (i)2004–05, (ii) 2005–06 and (iii) 2006–07. [58882]
Yvette Cooper: (a) The allocations from the arms length management organisation (ALMO) programme was £577.15 million in 2004–05, and are £850.04 million for 2005–06 and £884.40 million for 2006–07.
(b) The sums paid to registered social landlords in gap funding grant were £7.65 million in 2004–05 and £1.83 million in 2005–06 and are expected to be £57.679 million in 2006–07.
(c) Where a local authority transfers its housing to an RSL and the receipt it receives is not sufficient to repay the outstanding debt attributable to the housing the Office will make a one off payment where the debt is held with the Public Works Loans Board. The one off payment is made to discharge the Office's continued liability, through the Housing Revenue Account, to pay subsidy on an authority's housing attributable debt that remains after the transfer.
Such payments are not made in respect of ALMOs as the local authority's debt continues to be supported through the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system. £592.44 million was allocated to support housing transfers in 2004–05. £275.54 million has been allocated to date in 2005–06. The allocation for 2006–07 is £616 million.
(d) The allocation for the Housing Action Trust programme was £59.37 million for 2004–05, and is £17.6370 million for 2005–06 and £1 million for 2006–07.
Sustainable Buildings
Mr. Soames: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will introduce a mandatory code for sustainable buildings. [64448]
Yvette Cooper [holding answer 19 April 2006]: From 6 April 2006, new building regulations that set higher mandatory standards for energy efficiency that every new building must meet. These regulations raise energy efficiency standards for new buildings by 40 per cent. compared to 2002.
In addition we are giving consideration to further ways to increase the take-up of the Code for Sustainable Homes, including the possibility of mandatory assessments against all Code requirements.
We will also introduce mandatory assessment of energy efficiency in all new homes to be included in Energy Performance Certificates.
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Unregistered Social Landlords
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many proposals to allow councils to set up unregistered social landlords have been made to his Department in the last 5 years. [61645]
Village Shops (Cornwall)
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many villages in (a) Kerrier district and (b) Cornwall do not have a village shop. [63631]
Jim Knight: I have been asked to reply.
W do not hold information on how many villages in (a) Kerrier district and (b) Cornwall do not have a village shop.
The Government have assisted local services by extending mandatory rate relief at 50 per cent. to include sole village public houses, petrol stations and village food shops under the village shop scheme. Qualifying premises are entitled to a 50 per cent. reduction in their business rates bills, and local authorities have the discretion to top-up all other non-domestic premises up to 100 per cent. provided it has a rateable value of £14,000 or less.
The Countryside Agency has supported village shops through the Community Service Grants, identified under the Vital Villages programme, (a three year programme of grants that commenced in April 2001). Since April 2005, Defra has devolved funding for some of the Countryside Agency's economic and social regeneration policies, including those hitherto supported by the Vital Villages programme, to the regional development agencies. RDAs, working in partnership, will decide how to spend their resources to meet national targets and address regional and local needs.
Waste Incinerators
Norman Baker: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what requirements there are for planning authorities to take account of available water resources when determining planning applications for incinerators, with particular reference to East Sussex; and what opportunity exists for the views of water supply companies to be considered in such cases. [63152]
Yvette Cooper: Local planning authorities must determine planning applications in accordance with the statutory development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Where relevant the availability of water resources will have informed the preparation of the development plan and its policies and could be a material consideration in the determination of a planning application for an incinerator. Water undertakers will be consulted on the preparation of the development plan, and applications for planning permission will be publicised by the local planning authority concerned.
Departmental Policies
Rosie Cooper:
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will set out with statistical evidence relating as closely as
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possible to west Lancashire constituency the effects in west Lancashire of changes to his Department's policies since 1997. [64234]
Mr. Woolas:
The Department has put in place a considerable programme of reforms and improvements across a wide range of policy areas. These changes have
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resulted in payments made to west Lancashire district council since 2002–03 (when the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established following the Machinery of Government Changes on 29 May 2002) as shown in the following tables. It has been for the west Lancashire district council to determine how that allocation has spent, in line with their priorities.
In addition since 1 April 2006 west Lancashire has been a partner in the local area agreement for the county. This has resulted in allocations as follows:
The Cleaner Safer Greener Fund—£970,000 for 2006–07 and £1,130,000 for 2007–08 to be spent across the borough in order to address 'liveability' issues with a specific focus on narrowing the gap between the best and worst areas.
The Neighbourhood Element Fund—£412,800 for 2006–07 and £516,000 for 2007–08, to be spent with a focus on neighbourhood management within the areas of Digmoor and Tanhouse in Skelmersdale.
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Adult Education (Tooting)
Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding has been allocated to adult education in Tooting in each year since 1997. [47743]
Bill Rammell: The Department allocates funds for the post-16 education and training sector to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) working through 47 local offices. The LSC was established in 2001 bringing the planning and funding of post-16 education together under one body within a framework set by Government. In 2001–02 the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) spent£2,236 million on adult programmes including Further Education, Work Based Learning, Adult and Community Learning and other programmes in England. This increased to £2,427 million in 2002–03; £2,866 million in 2003–04; and £2,999 million in 2004–05. The Department does not hold figures for adult education funding at local or regional levels. Some of the information you require is available on the LSC's website. As the LSC is responsible for the planning and funding of post-16 learning, Mark Haysom, the council's chief executive has written to my hon. Friend with the information requested and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 19 April 2006:
I write in response to your recent Parliamentary Question regarding funding allocated to adult education in Tooting in each year since 1997. I trust the following information is helpful.
The LSC has calculated that the London Borough of Wandsworth will have received nearly £80 million allocated to adult education as a total funding amount from the LSC inception in 2001/02 to the indicative allocation for 2006/2007.
We are not able to break this down by ward level and, therefore, these allocations are for the whole of Wandsworth and are not based on providers or residents based in the Tooting ward. The local authority itself may be able to provide further detail on adult participation/funding attracted at ward level.
I have provided a table to show the 19+ funding recorded on the LSC allocations payment system (AMPs) from 2002/03 to the present indicative allocations for 2006/07. This has been set out for Further Education, Work Based Learning, and Adult and Community Learning. We have included the figures for 2001/02 assuming these were the same as 2002/03. There may be some small variation in the actual level of 2001/02 allocations, which could be verified if required.
Funding allocations relating to adult education prior to the LSC would require searching the TEC records for WBL contracts, FEFC for further education and the DfES for Adult and Community Learning.
(30)Indicative.
(31)Assumed allocations prior to LSC AMPs records.
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