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2 Nov 2006 : Column 618W—continued


Minister for Women

Community Facilities

David Taylor: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what assessment she has made of the extent to which there is a need for young women to access female-only community facilities. [97159]

Meg Munn [holding answer 26 October 2006]: There has been no formal assessment of the need for young women to access female-only community facilities.

Communities and Local Government

Community Cohesion

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library copies of the minutes of the meeting she had with local authorities on 16 October on community cohesion; and if she will make a statement. [97359]

Meg Munn: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, met chief executives of local authorities from across the country as well as police and Government office representatives in central London on 16 October. The purpose of this private meeting was to discuss how the Department for Communities and Local Government can work with these stakeholders to tackle extremism and no formal minute was taken.

Connect to Your Council Campaign

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost was of the “Connect to Your Council” campaign; and what assessment she has made of the effect of the campaign on demand for online services. [95891]

Angela E. Smith: The “Connect to your Council” Take-Up campaign was launched in England in May 2006 with a £3.4 million media budget. Market research commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) from Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) shows that 21 per cent. of respondents who were able to recall the advertising declared that they had already visited their council website as a result of the “Connect to your Council” campaign. This translates into 1.3 million visits to the campaign home page and other local government pages of the Directgov website during the first burst of advertising between May to July 2006, with an increase of 88 per cent. in people accessing council websites from one in 11 of the adult population in England pre-campaign to one in six post campaign. Copies of the Central Office of Information (COI) evaluation report on the impact of the first burst of the campaign are available from the DCLG website.


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Council Tax

Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her most recent estimate is of the amount of council tax paid by members of the armed forces serving overseas. [98872]

Mr. Woolas: My Department has made no estimate made of the amount of council tax paid by members of the armed forces serving overseas.

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make it her policy to exempt members of the armed forces from council tax while they are posted overseas. [99116]

Mr. Woolas: As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced to the House on 11 October 2006, Official Report, column 298, my Department is discussing with the Ministry of Defence how best to provide support for the council tax costs of service personnel on operations abroad.

Departmental IT

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which of her Department's databases are (a) wholly and (b) partly operated by external organisations or individuals; and which organisations and individuals own those databases. [97751]

Angela E. Smith: Most of the Department’s databases, including those associated with Websites, receive varying degrees of externally provided support in respect of hardware, software and data. A detailed breakdown of these support regimes is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The ownership of the data stored on these databases resides either with the Department or with third-party data suppliers, under commercial agreements.

Empty Dwellings

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many abandoned homes there are in each local authority area in England. [96364]

Yvette Cooper: Information is not held centrally on the number of abandoned homes and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Energy Surveyors

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many accredited Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure energy surveyors there are. [78342]

Yvette Cooper: There are many thousands of people with relevant skills and experience who should be able
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to qualify quickly as domestic energy assessors once the stand-alone qualification for domestic energy assessors is available early next year and RdSAP software packages have been approved. These are in addition to home inspectors who are already qualified or in training.

Fire Stations

Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) retained and (b) non-retained fire stations are fitted with smoke alarms. [99581]

Angela E. Smith: The information requested is not held centrally.

Household Numbers

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the factors underlying the change in the number of households since 1990-91. [97030]

Yvette Cooper: An analysis of the components of growth in household numbers between 1991 and 2003 is listed as follows. Household growth has been split into the four principal factors generating additional households.

The components are:

The figures include a “remainder” which shows the change due to interaction between the components, for instance, the combined effect of increasing population and changes in the age distribution.

Components of household growth: England: 1991 to 2003
Percentage

Growth in the adult population

55

Aging population

27

Marital status distribution

-14

Household formation rates

16

Interaction of the components (remainder)

16


Housing

Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of building on brownfield sites took place on residential land in (a) Bournemouth and (b) Dorset in each of the last five years. [86325]

Yvette Cooper: The information available is from the Department’s land use change statistics.

Estimated proportions are shown in the following table:


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2 Nov 2006 : Column 622W
Percentage
Bournemouth Dorset
New dwellings on previously residential land as a proportion of all dwellings Proportion of new dwellings on Greenfield land Proportion of new dwellings on Brownfield land New dwellings on previously residential land as a proportion of all dwellings Proportion of new dwellings on Greenfield land Proportion of new dwellings on Brownfield land

1990

76

5

95

41

45

55

1991

45

39

61

29

58

42

1992

45

7

93

33

42

58

1993

17

10

90

19

46

54

1994

16

50

50

20

49

51

1995

24

9

91

18

48

52

1996

51

8

92

30

49

51

1997

35

23

77

23

48

52

1998

43

7

93

28

37

63

1999

61

2

92

33

37

63

2000

39

17

83

28

48

52

2001

31

5

95

29

35

65

2002

38

3

97

31

30

70

2003

46

100

33

26

74

2004

67

100

34

35

65

Average

2000-04

43

4

96

31

33

67


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