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8 Feb 2007 : Column 1178W—continued


Social Housing

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what opportunities exist for the inclusion of energy efficiency measures into social housing owned by (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations; and what grant or other help is available from government to enhance energy efficiency in (i) new build and (ii) existing stock. [114841]

Yvette Cooper: The Decent Homes standard, which applies to all social housing, whether owned by local authorities or registered social landlords, contains a number of energy efficiency measures. Research by the Building Research Establishment on the implementation of the Decent Homes programme indicates that the majority of improvement works under the Decent Homes scheme include work to improve energy efficiency. The same research also indicates that most landlords, when implementing energy efficiency works, deliver much higher standards than the minimum required by the Decent Homes standard.

Between 1997 and 2010, we expect local authorities and registered social landlords will together have spent at least £40 billion on improving their homes through the Decent Homes programme.

DEFRA supports the energy efficiency commitment (EEC) which is run by Ofgem. The EEC requires obligated electricity and gas suppliers to achieve targets
8 Feb 2007 : Column 1179W
for the improvement of energy efficiency in domestic properties in Great Britain. This involves energy suppliers working with householders and housing providers (both social and private) to implement energy efficiency measures, which are funded mostly by the energy suppliers themselves.

Social housing providers, builders and householders can access a number of grants for energy efficiency works under the DTI’s “Low Carbon Buildings” programme, covering up to 50 per cent. of costs of installing micro generation or other energy efficiency technology.

Since 2006, newly built social homes funded by the Housing Corporation through the approved development pot must gain an EcoHomes rating of “very good”, from 2008 newly build homes funded by the Housing Corporation will have to meet the Code for Sustainable Buildings level 3.

Social Services: Grants

Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much central Government grant each local authority delivering social services would have received if (a) floors and ceilings had not been applied and (b) if damping had not been applied to the children and young adults element of the grant. [112523]

Mr. Woolas: A table has been placed in the Library of the House showing how much formula grant, which comprises revenue support grant, redistributed business rates and principal formula police grant, would have been received in 2007-08 (a) if damping had been applied to the Children's Social Care Relative Needs Formula and the Younger Adults’ Personal Social Services Relative Needs Formula but floor damping had not been applied and (b) if damping had neither been applied to the Children’s Social Care Relative Needs Formula and the Younger Adults’ Personal Social Services Relative Needs Formula nor had floor damping been applied.

It is not possible to say how much grant authorities would have received in 2007-08 had damping not been applied to the Children’s Social Care Relative Needs Formula and the Younger Adults’ Personal Social Services Relative Needs Formula but floor damping had been applied, since we might have taken different decisions on the level of floor damping to ensure that every authority would have received a reasonable increase year-on-year on a like-for-like basis i.e. after adjusting for changes in funding and function.

South East Plan

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what the cost to the public purse was of commissioning Robert Tym and Partners to produce a report on the South East plan for the examination in public; [114405]

(2) what the recommendations of the report by Robert Tym and Partners were on the South East plan in relation to (a) building numbers of new dwellings and (b) green belt protection. [114406]


8 Feb 2007 : Column 1180W

Yvette Cooper: The Government commissioned this research by Robert Tym and Partners to augment the evidence base for the examination in public into the draft regional spatial strategy for the South East. This is not a report on the South East plan, it is an independent technical exercise using publicly available information to assess the impacts and implications of accommodating levels of housing growth above that proposed by the South East of England regional assembly, should this be considered by the independent panel conducting the EiP.

The report has not reviewed or revised the South East plan or developed alternatives to the plan. The consultants were not required to provide a critique of the draft RSS or the evidence base underpinning it, nor were they asked to recommend an optimum level of growth or present an alternative distribution for the levels of growth tested. The intention in commissioning the work was to make sure that the evidence is available to inform an open and wide ranging debate at the EiP, to ensure that the South East is able to respond to important environmental and housing pressures over the next 20 years. The cost of the report was £73,000.

Sporting and Recreational Grounds

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps her Department takes to protect sporting and recreational grounds from development. [117148]

Yvette Cooper: The land use planning system provides robust protection for sporting and recreational grounds that local communities need. Government policy is set out in Planning Policy Guidance note 17: “Open Space, Sport and Recreation” (PPG17).

Street Markets

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what steps the Department is taking to support and develop the role of local street markets in helping deliver its policy objectives on regenerating and sustaining communities; and if she will make a statement; [111720]

(2) what policies are being developed to enhance and support the development of street markets as part of out-of-town developments; [111721]

(3) what assessment she has made of the potential role of local street markets in town centre regeneration and in providing opportunities for local economic development and employment; and if she will make a statement. [111723]

Yvette Cooper: The Government recognises the valuable contribution that street markets can make to local choice and diversity in shopping, and the vitality of town centres, but it is for local authorities to decide how they achieve that local choice and diversity, taking account of the national policy framework.

To support and develop the role of street markets, national planning policy, in “Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres” (PPS6), asks local authorities to consider markets as an integral part of the vision for their town centres, and to seek to retain and enhance existing markets and, where appropriate, re-introduce
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or create new ones. Local authorities are encouraged to ensure that their markets remain attractive and competitive by investing in their improvement.

PPS6 asks local authorities to assess the need for retail development, as a context for planning for town centres, and to ensure that there are sites available to provide for this need. We would expect local authorities to take account of the role of street markets in carrying out this assessment.

Planning policy does not specifically promote street markets as part of out-of-town developments. PPS6 promotes policies which will support the vitality and viability of existing town centres. But local authorities are encouraged to plan more widely for people’s day-to-day needs and to seek to remedy deficiencies in local shopping and other facilities where appropriate, working with local communities and stakeholders. This could include promoting local street markets.

Tree Preservation

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what powers exist to prosecute developers if they cut down trees for which they have no planning permission to fell; and what sanctions apply in cases where such trees have tree preservation orders attached to them. [111445]

Yvette Cooper: Planning permission is not required for cutting down trees, although a felling licence may be required from the Forestry Commission, depending on the current use of the land and the number of trees involved. The penalty for cutting down trees without a felling licence where it is required is £2,500 in the magistrates court or twice the value of the trees, whichever is the higher.


8 Feb 2007 : Column 1182W

Consent from the local planning authority is required for cutting down trees which are subject to a tree preservation order. The penalty for cutting down a tree in contravention of an order is a fine of up to £20,000 in the magistrates court, or an unlimited fine in the Crown court. The same penalty applies for cutting down trees in conservation areas without giving prior notice to the local planning authority.

Valuation Office

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many domestic properties have photographs allocated to their property recorded by the Valuation Office Agency as part of their council tax valuation records. [111964]

Mr. Woolas: At November 2006, (3.3 per cent.) of the 23 million domestic property records, in England and Wales, held by the Valuation Office Agency have a photograph or photographs attached.

Wandsworth Borough Council: Finance

Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was allocated to Wandsworth council by the Government in each of the last 15 years, broken down into (a) ringfenced and (b) non-ringfenced funding. [118187]

Mr. Woolas: The amount of revenue funding allocated to Wandsworth council by the Government between 1997-98 and 2005-06, broken down into (a) ringfenced and (b) non-ringfenced funding is given in the following table.

£ million
(a) Ringfenced (b) Non-ringfenced Other grants not separately identified Total( 1)

1997-98

8.2

201.3

0.0

209.5

1998-99

12.0

196.0

0.0

208.1

1999-00

16.4

201.6

0.6

218.6

2000-01

25.3

203.8

0.4

229.5

2001-02

32.3

208.0

0.4

240.7

2002-03

37.2

210.6

0.5

248.3

2003-04

51.1

224.4

4.1

279.6

2004-05

39.9

242.1

4.0

285.9

2005-06

32.8

261.9

5.3

300.1

(1 )May not sum due to rounding
Source:
Communities and Local Government Revenue Outturn returns

A breakdown of ringfenced and non-ringfenced funding is not supplied prior to 1997-98 and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. This is because a classification of grants as ringfenced or non-ringfenced is not held centrally for years before 1997-98.

Revenue funding includes all grants inside Aggregate External Finance (AEF) (i.e. revenue grants paid for councils’ core services), and includes formula grant (revenue support grant and redistributed business rates) and all specific grants.

The figures exclude grants outside AEF such as housing benefit subsidy, 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.

Trade and Industry

Advertising: Air Pollution

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the carbon
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emissions generated through the electricity requirements of backlit advertising poster sites; and if he will make a statement. [119497]

Malcolm Wicks: No formal estimates of the electricity consumption and related carbon emissions for backlit advertising poster sites have been made.

Committees: Ministerial Attendance

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what occasions (a) he and (b) departmental Ministers have been requested to appear before committees of (i) devolved institutions and (ii) the European Parliament since 2004; on what topic in each case; how many and what proportion of such requests were accepted; and if he will make a statement. [111579]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Ministers in the Department have regularly attended committees of the devolved institutions and European Parliament since 2004 in the course of official business. It is not possible to provide the more detailed information requested without incurring disproportionate cost.

Construction

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what contribution to the UK economy was made by the construction industry in each year since 1997. [119003]

Margaret Hodge: The Department for Trade and Industry is responsible for statistics on construction in Great Britain only. The total value of public and private housebuilding in Great Britain in 1997-2005 was:

£ million
Current prices Constant (2000) prices

1997

7,983

9,911

1998

8,430

9,791

1999

8,419

8,884

2000

9,985

9,985

2001

10,234

9,420

2002

12,089

9,933

2003

15,362

11,205

2004

19,447

12,763

2005

21,063

13,072


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