House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 30 Jan 2007 (pt 0029)

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£000
	Receipts from Right to Buy (RTB) sales	Housing set-aside^{( 1)}	Pooled receipts arising from sales of dwellings^{( 2)}	Usable housing receipts^{( 4)}	Supported new housing capital expenditure^{( 5)}
1995-96	⁽⁶⁾—	11,799	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	64,993
1996-97	⁽⁶⁾—	13,440	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	62,710
1997-98	⁽⁶⁾—	15,432	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	61,838
1998-99	14,647	16,713	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	61,815
1999-00	27,275	21,747	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	60,088
2000-01	35,380	30,640	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	59,980
2001-02	43,664	35,776	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	58,016
2002-03	70,382	55,372	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	55,175
2003-04	85,875	⁽⁶⁾—	⁽⁷⁾—	⁽⁶⁾—	55,300
2004-05	79,705	0	49,401	22,081	45,051
2005-06	48,785	0	34,146	14,639	47,952
2006-07	⁽³⁾21,513	0	⁽³⁾15,094	⁽³⁾6,41 9	46,914
^{(1 )}Communities and Local Government does not collect data on Right to Buy (RTB) set-aside amounts. Until 2003-04 the data gathered are the total receipts to which set-aside applies for all sales of Housing Revenue Account (HRA) assets. This includes Right to Buy (RTB) sales and also, for example, large or small scale stock transfers and the sale of bare land. For 2003-04, while local authorities will have set aside receipts from all HRA disposals, we only gathered data for receipts generated by large or small scale voluntary transfers. Whether or not a local authority actually used the amounts set-aside to repay debt was a treasury management decision for them. It may have been that it made better financial sense for the local authority to keep a debt on its books and invest the set-aside elsewhere, rather than redeem the debt early and face early redemption penalties. ⁽²⁾ Central Government only began receiving housing receipts in 2004-05. Before then, local authorities were required instead to set aside a proportion of their housing receipts. For 2004-05 onwards, figures include retained capital receipts arising from the sales of all dwellings, not just Right to Buy. ⁽³⁾ Figures for 2006-07 are only for the first two quarters. Figures for the third and fourth quarters will not be known until February and May this year respectively. ⁽⁴⁾ Before 2004-05, the Department did not collect data on the amount of receipts retained by local authorities. For years since then, figures include retained capital receipts arising from the sales of all dwellings, not just Right to Buy. ⁽⁵⁾ Figures show the amount of additional housing capital expenditure for which central Government supports through HRA subsidy. ⁽⁶⁾ Not available. ^{(7 )}Not applicable.

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what temporary housing provision was made available to the homeless in Eastbourne constituency in each of the last 10 years. [116541]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle), 29 January 2007, Official Report, column 2W.

Housing: Standards

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she expects each local authority to meet the decent homes target. [107432]

Yvette Cooper: Three local authorities with ALMOS and four local authorities who have retained management of their stock report they have already achieved the decent homes standard.

In June the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said that some local authorities would need to continue their progress beyond 2010 in order to ensure value for money, support for mixed communities and new build and deal with late starts. However the majority of social landlords should be completed by 2010 and we expect that 95 per cent. of the social housing stock will be decent by 2010. We have not yet finalised dates for when each local authority expects to be able to make all their stock decent.

Islamic Extremists

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department has provided to local authorities in large cities to monitor for Islamic extremists, broken down by local authority; and if she will make a statement. [112076]

Mr. Woolas: The monitoring of Islamist extremists, which is the role of the Police and Security Services, is not something that Communities and Local Government (CLG) provides money to support.

CLG continues to work closely with local authorities and community organisations to build the capacity of Muslim communities to robustly challenge the ideas of violent extremists who seek to undermine our way of life, and some £5 million of funding for 2007-08 is being made available for local authorities to take forward a programme of activities to tackle violent extremism at a local level.

Leeds: Local Planning Authority

Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the performance of Leeds as a local planning authority. [109948]

Yvette Cooper: My Department publishes quarterly statistics on local planning authorities’ performance in terms of the time taken to determine planning applications and, together with Government offices, tracks whether or not they are on course to meet our PSA6 (Local Government’s PSA11) targets by March 2007. Where authorities are identified as being at high risk of failing to meet the targets, my officials ask the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) to offer them tailored support. Where this offer is accepted, the first step is for a PAS consultant to undertake a diagnostic visit.

My officials together with Government offices also monitor performance on the preparation of local development frameworks against the timetables that local authorities have set out in their local development schemes.

In addition, the Audit Commission undertakes periodic inspections of individual local authorities’ planning services where, for example, the Audit Commission’s relationship manager considers there is cause for concern.

In 2003 Leeds city council was identified as a Planning Standards Authority for major and other types of application. As part of this process, my Department commissioned consultants to visit the planning authority and assess its planning performance. Since then Leeds has made progress towards the PSA6 targets.

Local Government

Ms Diana R. Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the annual percentage change was in central Government grant provided to Hull city council in each year since 1990. [111210]

Mr. Woolas: The annual percentage changes in central Government grant provided to Hull city council in each year since 1990 are shown in the following table.

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	Percentage change
1991-92	-5.2
1992-93	30.9
1993-94	-80.6
1994-95	1.4
1995-96	-3.2
1996-97	534.3
1997-98	1.6
1998-99	5.2
1999-2000	5.9
2000-01	7.6
2001-02	7.9
2002-03	6.4
2003-04	12.7
2004-05	1.3
2005-06	5.6
Source: Communities and Local Government Revenue Outturn Summary (RS) returns

Owing to reorganisation, and consequent changes to local authority responsibilities or methods of funding, direct comparisons are not valid across all years. In particular, before 1993-94 payments were made into the Hull city collection fund in respect of Hull city council and Humberside county council. Between 1993-94 and 1995-96, payments made to Hull city are for that council only. From 1996-97, payments have been made to Kingston-upon-Hull unitary authority.

The definition of central Government grant used here is the sum of specific grants inside Aggregate External Finance (i.e. revenue grants paid for councils’ core services), and formula grant (revenue support grant and redistributed business rates). In past years, where applicable the SSA reduction grant, police grant, and central support protection grants have also been included.

Figures exclude capital grants, funding for local authorities’ housing management responsibilities and those grant programmes (such as European funding) where authorities are simply one of the recipients of funding paid towards an area.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what discussions she has had with (a) the Local Government Association and (b) Gloucestershire county council on (i) prudential borrowing and (ii) the previous capital borrowing regime; and if she will make a statement; [111424]

(2) what assessment she has made of the effect of the changes in the local authority borrowing regime since 2005. [111425]

Mr. Woolas: Since introducing the prudential borrowing system in 2004, we have monitored it carefully. That includes regular discussions with the Local Government Association, covering matters such as the transition from the previous system and possible future developments. We consider that the changes made to the system since 2004 have improved its operation. All local authorities are consulted on proposed amendments to the capital finance system, but there have been no individual discussions with Gloucestershire county council.

30 Jan 2007 : Column 292W

Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what discussions have taken place between her Department and Leicester city council regarding the local government finance settlement for 2007-08. [111731]

Mr. Woolas: As in previous years where there were no substantial changes to the formulae, I decided not to agree to meet individual local authorities' delegations during consultation on our proposals for the 2007-08 local government finance settlement. I did, however, meet with London councils and other groups representing different types of local authorities during the consultation.

The local authority associations were informed of this arrangement prior to the launch of consultation.

Therefore, no direct discussions about the 2007-08 settlement have taken place between Leicester city council and Communities and Local Government. Leicester city council did submit a written representation in response to the settlement consultation, which was considered alongside all others received during the consultation period.

Local Government Finance: Wandsworth

Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much and what proportion of central funding for London boroughs was allocated to Wandsworth council in each of the last 10 years; and what the average allocation was in each year. [117695]

Mr. Woolas: The proportion of central funding for all London boroughs allocated to Wandsworth council in each of the last 10 years is shown in the following table.

	Percentage
1996-97	3.9
1997-98	3.8
1998-99	3.6
1999-2000	3.5
2000-01	3.4
2001-02	3.3
2002-03	3.2
2003-04	3.3
2004-05	3.2
2005-06	3.1
Source: Communities and Local Government Revenue Outturn Summary (RS) returns

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