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6 Nov 2006 : Column 886W—continued
In addition, Government capital provision in affordable housing, both new and existing, since 1997 is as follows:
| £ million | |
The capital investment figures included expenditure through the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme. Information on how this funding was spent on social rented housing and on existing social housing is as follows:
| £ million | ||
| Expenditure on social rent provision | Expenditure on existing social rented housing | |
| (1) Provisional. (2) Estimate. Notes: 1. Expenditure on social rent provision includes both new build and additions to the stock which are acquired and refurbished. 2. The figures for existing social housing include expenditure on major repairs and works to Registered Social Landlord stock. Source: Housing Corporation. | ||
IT Projects
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her Department's five most expensive (a) web and (b) non-web information technology projects have been since 2001. [98563]
Angela E. Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government was created in May 2006. No (a) web or (b) non-web information technology projects have been completed since that date.
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what percentage of information technology projects undertaken by or for her Department since 2001 have been delivered (a) over budget, (b) after their original deadline, (c) on budget, (d) under budget, (e) on their original deadline and (f) ahead of their original deadline. [98600]
Angela E. Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government was created in May 2006. No information technology projects have been completed since that date.
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many information technology projects her Department has undertaken in each year since 2001; and how many of those projects were web-related. [98617]
Angela E. Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government was created in May 2006. One information technology project has been initiated since that date; it is not web-related.
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much her Department has spent on information technology consultants in each year since 2001; and how many consultants worked on web-facing projects in each of those years. [98618]
Angela E. Smith: The Department of Communities and Local Government came into being in May 2006. The spend on IT consultancies for the year to date is £4,955,360.
To provide the numbers of consultants working on web-facing projects would be at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much her Department has spent on (a) information technology projects and (b) web-facing information technology projects in each year since 2001. [98619]
Angela E. Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government was created in May 2006. No (a) information technology projects and (b) web-facing information technology projects have been completed since that date.
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many contracts for non-web related information technology projects with a value over £1 million have been awarded by her Department to external consultants since 2001. [98925]
Angela E. Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government was formed in May 2006. There are four non-web related contracts with a value of over £1 million.
Local Government
Mr. Purchase: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will take steps to allow local authorities to decide policies and strategies through specialist committees rather than through a Cabinet monitored by scrutiny boards. [99295]
Mr. Woolas:
The Local Government White Paper published on 26 October sets out our plans for stronger and more stable executive leadership and giving local authority overview and scrutiny committees new
powers to review the actions of key public bodies. We have no plans to return to the old committee system.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent communication her Department has had with Coventry city council on the Local Government White Paper. [98886]
Mr. Woolas: My Department has engaged extensively with local government representatives and individual authorities across England in developing “Strong and Prosperous Communities—The Local Government White Paper”.
Contact with Coventry city council as part of this broad agenda has included the following:
officials met with the leader and chief executive of Coventry city council in May 2005, as part of the engagement programme for the discussion document on “Vibrant Local Leadership”; and
as a member of the Birmingham, Coventry and Black Country city-region, Coventry city council were involved in the development of the city-region business case which was presented to the Secretary of State on 23 May 2006. Further engagement on this agenda took place in relation to the city-region’s joint growth point bid, with the funding allocations being announced on 24 October 2006.
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether she proposes a limit on the number of unitary authorities further to section 3.55 of the local government white paper. [100183]
Mr. Woolas: As we made clear in paragraph 5.16 of the invitation to councils to make proposals for future unitary structures that was published alongside the Local Government White Paper, the Government think they will be unlikely to be able to implement more than eight proposals. However, the final decision on the number of proposals that will be implemented will depend crucially on the content of local authority submissions and the potential impact on public expenditure totals if these proposals were approved. This expected maximum number would not preclude the Government from deciding to implement more if they offered good value for money and were affordable.
London Borough of Bexley
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which projects are under consideration by her Department in the London Borough of Bexley. [99984]
Yvette Cooper: The Government office for London is currently negotiating a Local Area Agreement with the London borough of Bexley. The agreement will bring together funding streams from various Whitehall Departments. It offers Bexley the opportunity to work more flexibly to achieve its own locally agreed priorities and will include reward grant for enhanced performance in some of those priority areas.
The Housing Corporation has allocated over £15 million in its 2006-08 housing programme to support schemes in the London borough of Bexley.
Under our Thames Gateway programme Bexley is receiving £35 million over the period 2004-05 to 2007-08 to support a range of projects from town centre regeneration to managing marshland, and to fund the Bexley Regeneration Partnership. Further funding for a project to refurbish and renovate the Crossness pumping station is currently under consideration. English Partnerships is providing funding of £200,000 to support masterplanning on the Erith Western Gateway Project in the borough.
The East Thamesmead Centre for Innovation is also receiving £2.5 million capital funding from the European Regional Development Fund between 2004-05 and 2006-07. The aims of the project include providing incubation space for new and expanding businesses, and accommodating an innovation and business development support service.
Ministerial Gifts
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the publication of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Resource Accounts 2005-06 (HC 1465), what each of the individual gifts given by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2005-06 were; and who received each gift. [94559]
Angela E. Smith: The following table provides a brief description of each item gifted by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in the financial year 2005-06, and the entity that received each gift.
Ministerial Travel
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps she has taken to offset the carbon dioxide emissions caused by ministerial travel in her Department. [98743]
Angela E. Smith: All central government ministerial and official air travel is being offset from 1 April 2006. Departmental aviation emissions are calculated on an annual basis and subsequently offset through payments to a central fund. The fund purchases certified emissions reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with sustainable development benefits, located in developing countries.
Muslim Council of Britain
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much (a) financial support and (b) support in kind her predecessor departments the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and their agencies gave to the Muslim Council of Britain in each year since 1997. [99397]
Meg Munn: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 30 October 2006, Official Report, column 46W, to a question which sought details of financial support and support in kind given to the Muslim Council of Britain.
Information from previous Departments is not held centrally and cannot be researched further without disproportionate cost.
Ocean Estate (Transfer Ballot)
Mr. Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the costs were of the housing consultation exercise related to the recent stock transfer ballot on the Ocean Estate in London E1/E14 in each year since 2001; and by which organisations the costs will be met. [97405]
Yvette Cooper: The costs of the statutory consultation required under section 106 of and Schedule 3 A of the Housing Act 1985 are as follows:
| (£) | ||
| Costs incurred by: | London Borough of Tower Hamlets | Ocean NDC—covered by DCLG Grant |
| (1) Estimated costs | ||
Sanctuary Housing Association incurred costs of 297,838 on promotional activity during the formal consultation period.
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