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17 July 2006 : Column 112W—continued
Council Tax
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full-time equivalent staff work in the council tax capping division in her Department. [85697]
Mr. Woolas: The Expenditure Control Division of the Department deals with council tax capping among other issues. At present the division has 8.6 full-time equivalent members of staff, including temporary staff.
It is not possible to set out the split of staff input between capping and other work.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total administrative cost was of the council tax capping division in her Department in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06. [85699]
Mr. Woolas: The total expenditure incurred by the Division dealing with council tax capping, including work on issues other than capping, was:
It is not possible to set out the split of resources between capping and other work.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of the population pays council tax; and what percentage of those qualify for discounts. [86005]
Mr. Woolas: The number of chargeable dwellings liable for council tax in England as at November 2005 was 21,267,000 of which 8,018,000 dwellings (37.7 per cent.) were entitled to a discount.
The number of chargeable dwellings and those entitled to a discount are taken from the CTB1 forms submitted to this Department by all 354 billing authorities in England. The number of individuals liable for council tax cannot be accurately determined from these or other sources.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much council tax was collected by local authorities in the last year for which figures are available. [86025]
Mr. Woolas: A total of £18.4 billion council tax was collected by local authorities in England in 2005-06, irrespective of the financial year to which the liabilities relate.
Councillors (Parental Rights)
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) maternity rights and (b) paternity rights councillors have; and if she will make a statement. [85674]
Mr. Woolas: Legislation does not provide maternity or paternity rights for local authority councillors.
Crasher Green (Stroud)
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she will name the successful bidder for the Crasher Green site, Stroud. [83276]
Yvette Cooper: English Partnerships is currently conducting a feasibility study into the development of the Crasher Green site in Stroud which is due to be completed in July. A decision about the future development of the site will follow in the autumn.
Discharged Psychiatric Patients
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the number of discharged psychiatric patients who (a) became homeless and (b) were given (i) temporary accommodation and (ii) council housing in each year since 1990. [83376]
Yvette Cooper: Although psychiatric patients should not be discharged as homeless, some may nevertheless self-discharge and not have accommodation available to them. People may be discharged to temporary accommodation as part of a plan agreed between mental health services and housing departments, but this is not recorded as part of routine monitoring.
Information collected by my Department about households accepted by local authorities as unintentionally homeless and in a priority need group identifies those where the applicant or a household member was vulnerable as a result of mental illness or disability. Results for years since 1997 are presented in Table 4 of the quarterly Statistical Release on homelessness, first quarter of 2006, published on 12 June. A summary of information back to 1990 is presented in the table. However, information on the number of these who had been former psychiatric patients, and whether they were subsequently allocated temporary accommodation or a settled tenancy, is not available centrally.
Green and White Papers
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will list in date order (a) Green and (b) White Papers produced by her Department since October 2005. [81267]
Angela E. Smith: No Green or White Papers have been published by this Department for the period in question.
Homelessness
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many single vulnerable households were accepted as homeless in the Ribble Valley in each of the last five years. [84755]
Yvette Cooper [holding answer 13 July 2006]: Information about local authorities' actions under homelessness legislation is collected quarterly, at local authority level. The parliamentary constituency of the Ribble Valley shares its boundaries with those of Ribble Valley district council.
Statistical returns distinguish the number of households accepted as eligible for assistance, and unintentionally homeless according to the main category of priority need the applicant falls within. The returns do not identify the number of people in the household. Information reported by Ribble Valley in each year since 2001-02 is summarised in the following table:
| Households accepted by Ribble Valley district council as eligible, unintentionally homeless and in a priority need category | ||||
| Total households | Of which: containing dependent children | Of which: containing an expectant mother | Applicant of family member vulnerable( 1) | |
| (1) As well as applicants, or members of their household, considered vulnerable, figures also include households homeless in an emergency, applicants aged 16 or 17 years old, and applicants formerly in care and aged 18 to 20 years old. Source DCLG P1E Homelessness returns (quarterly) | ||||
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people were (a) homeless and (b) placed in emergency accommodation in (i) each of the past five years and (ii) 2006-07 to date; and how many (A) new local authority lettings, (B) new housing association lettings and (C) sales under right-to-buy took place in each borough in each year. [84944]
Yvette Cooper: Information about local authorities’ actions under homelessness legislation, which is collected in respect of households rather than persons, is summarised in a quarterly Statistical Release, the latest of which was published by the Department for Communities and Local Government on 12 June.
Copies of the Statistical Release and tables are available in the Library, and from the DCLG website at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=l002882& PressNoticeID=2169
(a) Table 1 of the Statistical Release provides the number of decisions on homelessness applications from eligible households in each year since 1997, distinguishing those found to be homeless. This includes those accepted by local authorities as unintentionally homeless and in a priority need category, and consequently owed a main homelessness duty.
Information is also collected by the Department on the number of people who sleep rough—that is, those who are literally roofless on a single night. These are recorded on a calendar year basis, and figures for 1998 up to the latest available figures, for 2005, are also presented on DCLG’s website, at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/132/National RoughSleepingEstimate2005Excel116Kb_idll50132.xls
(b) The duty owed to a person accepted as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need is to secure suitable accommodation. If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority may secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available. Table 6 of the Statistical Release presents those in various forms of temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities at the end of each quarter since March 1997.
The supplementary tables of the release show the results at local authority level.
No data are yet available for 2006-07. Figures for the first quarter of 2006-07 will be published in September.
(A) The number of new local authority lettings in each local authority for the years 2000-01 to 2004-05 has been placed in the Library of the House. No data are available for 2005-06 or 2006-07.
(B) The number of new Housing Association lettings in each local authority for the years 2001/02 to 2005-06 has been placed in the Library of the House. No data are available for 2006-07.
(C) Data on the number of sales under right-to-buy are available from the DCLG website at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/383/Table648Excel 545Kb_idl156383.xls
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homeless households in (a) West Lancashire and (b) Lancashire were (i) living in temporary accommodation and (ii) sleeping rough in each of the past five years; and how many beds were available for homeless households in each area in each year. [83550]
Yvette Cooper: Local authorities report their activities under homelessness legislation quarterly, and this includes the number of homeless households in various forms of temporary accommodation as on the last day of the quarter.
The duty owed to a person accepted as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need is to secure suitable accommodation. If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority may secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available. As an alternative to the provision of temporary accommodation some authorities arrange for households to remain in their current accommodation until a settled solution becomes available.
Information is also collected on the number of people who sleep rough - that is, those who are literally roofless on a single night. These are recorded on a calendar year basis, and figures for mid-year 2001 up to the latest available figures, for 2005, are also presented in the following tables.
(a) The West Lancashire constituency is wholly contained in the West Lancashire local authority, although the authority also contains part of the South Ribble constituency. Temporary accommodation and rough sleeping figures for the entire West Lancashire authority for the last 5 years are in the following table:
| (i) Homeless households in temporary accommodation arranged by West Lancashire district council, and (ii) the number of rough sleepers in West Lancashire | ||
| Number of households in temporary accommodation( 1) (31 March snapshot) | Number of rough sleepers, people, mid-year (June) estimate( 2) | |
| (1) Households in accommodation at the end of the year (March) either pending a decision on their homelessness application or awaiting allocation of a settled home following acceptance. Excludes those households designated as “homeless at home” that have remained in their existing accommodation and have the same rights to suitable alternative accommodation as those in accommodation arranged by the authority. (2) Number of persons sleeping rough are based on local authority counts during the year and presented as a mid-year estimate. If no count takes place during the year an estimate is given by the local authority. Source: DCLG P1E Homelessness (quarterly) and HSSA (annual) returns. | ||
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