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9 Oct 2007 : Column 567W—continued
Housing: Energy
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether an energy performance certificate will need to be commissioned for a new build domestic dwelling for sale. [152411]
Yvette Cooper: Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) will be required on the sale of all new dwellings. Where an EPC has been obtained on construction, it can be reused if the property is resold within the certificate's validity period.
Housing: Low Incomes
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what definition she uses of overcrowding in relation to social housing. [153695]
Mr. Iain Wright:
Under the standards set out in Section 324 of Part 10 of the Housing Act 1985 a dwelling is overcrowded when the number of people
sleeping in the dwelling is such as to contravene either the 'room standard' or the 'space standard'.
The room standard is breached if the number of people sleeping in a dwelling, and the number of rooms available as sleeping accommodation, are such that two people of opposite sexes who are not living together as husband and wife must sleep in the same room. Children under 10 do not count.
The space standard specifies the maximum number of people who may sleep in a dwelling, and in the available rooms within it, having regard to (i) the number of available rooms of 50 square feet or more and (ii) the floor area of each room. Two calculations are required and the lower number applies. Babies under one year old do not count, and children between one and 10 count as half.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether National Register of Social Housing is maintained in-house or by an external company. [153910]
Yvette Cooper: The National Register of Social Housing is a database containing information on the individual dwellings which make up the stock of social housing in England. It is under development and currently contains records of 30 per cent. of the stock. The database is maintained in house by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many council-owned houses have been built for rent in each West Midlands metropolitan district since 1997. [156717]
Mr. Iain Wright: The number of council-owned houses built for rent for the period 1996-97 to 2006-07 as reported by the seven West Midlands metropolitan districts is shown as follows:
| Permanent dwellings completed by local authorities | |
| Source: P2 new build from local authorities | |
Local Government
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what adopted local plans and unitary development plans are in force for each local planning authority, broken down by (a) region and (b) county; and what the month of adoption was in each case. [152746]
Yvette Cooper:
Adopted local plans and UDPs are in force for all local planning authorities. Those plans which were adopted before September 2004 are “saved” until September 2007. Those adopted after September
2004 are “saved” for three years after adoption. Where local authorities have adopted development plan documents these will replace the local plans/UDPs in whole or in part. A table has been placed in the Library of the House showing the adoption dates of local plans and UDPs.
Mayor of London
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) of 11 December 2006, Official Report, column 898W, on the Mayor of London, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse, including the costs incurred by the Mayor, which will be met by the Standards Board. [156376]
John Healey: The Standards Board’s own costs in respect of the case against the London Mayor amount to £64,000. The costs payable by the board to the Mayor in connection with the case are estimated to be £120,000. The cost to the Adjudication Panel in respect of the case is £14,000.
Ordnance Survey: Government Departments
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which Government departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies have purchased licences to use the Ordnance Survey Pictometry product. [156580]
Mr. Iain Wright: PictometryÂ(r) is not an Ordnance Survey product.
BLOM Aerofilms Ltd., a private sector company, has the rights to market a Pictometry product in the United Kingdom. The product combines BLOM Aerofilms’s oblique aerial imagery with viewing software patented by an American company, Pictometry International Corp.
Ordnance Survey has a non-exclusive commercial agreement with BLOM Aerofilms to act as an authorised reseller of Pictometry of Great Britain. Information on sales of licences to use Pictometry within the United Kingdom is commercially sensitive to BLOM Aerofilms Ltd., given that there are other commercial providers of potentially competing products.
Ordnance Survey: Map Watch Initiative
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the purpose is of the Ordnance Survey’s Map Watch initiative. [155679]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Ordnance Survey ‘Map Watch’ initiative is an internal departmental initiative, started in 2000, to encourage Ordnance Survey staff to identify potentially unlicensed extracts of Ordnance Survey mapping contained within third party publications, so that infringements of Crown copyright may be investigated and resolved.
Planning Permission: Purfleet
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what period and with whom she will consult consequent on the decision of the High Court in respect of her decision to reject the planning application submitted by George Wimpey for 571 residential units on former industrial land at Cory’s Wharf, Purfleet; and if she will make a statement. [156391]
Mr. Dhanda: The Secretary of State will shortly write to George Wimpey, Thurrock borough council, Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation, and other interested persons who appeared at the public inquiry, to invite them to submit written representations in respect of any material changes in planning circumstances that may have occurred since the close of the inquiry. Parties will be asked to submit any representations no later than three weeks from the date of the Secretary of State’s letter. Alternatively, parties may ask for the inquiry to be re-opened. In deciding whether the inquiry should be re-opened, the Secretary of State will consider all views that may be expressed to her on this matter.
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what factors and whose advice she took into account in deciding to call in the planning application made by George Wimpey for 571 residential units at the former industrial land at Cory’s Wharf, Purfleet; and if she will make a statement. [156392]
Mr. Dhanda: In line with the then current policy on recovering planning appeals, set out in the statement to the House of Commons on 25 July 2000 by my right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford), the appeal was automatically recovered by the Secretary of State for her own determination in December 2004, rather than being decided by one of her Planning Inspectors, because it raised issues relating to residential development of more than 5 hectares or 150 or more houses.
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons she rejected the inspector’s findings made in respect of the planning application by George Wimpey for 571 residential units at the former industrial land at Cory’s Wharf, Purfleet and issued an alternative determination; and if she will make a statement. [156393]
Mr. Dhanda: The reasons for the Secretary of State’s decision are set out in the decision letter of 2 October 2006, which is available on the Department’s website at:
Copies of the decision letter have been placed in the Library of both houses. Since this decision has now been quashed and falls to be redetermined by the Secretary of State, it would not be appropriate to comment further on the reasons for the decision.
Planning Permission: Vauxhall Tower
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make a statement on the ruling of the Information Tribunal regarding the consideration of the planning application by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Vauxhall Tower in South London. [155683]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department for Communities and Local Government accepted the Information Tribunal Judgment in the particular case of the Vauxhall Tower planning application. Copies of the submissions by officials are available on the DCLG website. However, we consider each request for information on the particular facts of each case, in accordance with the provisions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Urban Areas: Trees
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) if she will place in the Library a copy of the Trees in Towns II report commissioned by her Department; [156513]
(2) what research her Department and its predecessor commissioned into trees in urban areas over the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [156581]
Mr. Iain Wright: We have commissioned one research project on trees in urban areas over the last five years, namely Trees in Towns II.
Copies of the Trees in Towns II final report will be placed in the Library when it is published towards the end of November 2007.
Treasury
Average Earnings
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the increase in average earnings in (a) the whole labour market, (b) the private sector and (c) the public sector has been since 1997. [155940]
Angela Eagle: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 9 October 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what increase in average earnings in (a) the whole labour market, (b) the private sector and (c) the public sector has been since 1997. I am replying in her absence. (155940)
Growth in earnings is estimated from the Average Earnings Index (AEI). The AEI figures for Great Britain are collected and published monthly. The AEI does not cover the self employed and people who do unpaid work.
The monthly changes to the index and growth are published on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/tsdtablesl.asp?vlnk=emp. Calendar year comparisons are available on request.
Each month 8900 companies are surveyed for the AEI, covering 12.8 million employees, which is just under half of all GB employees.
I attach a table showing the average earnings index seasonally adjusted from 1997 until 2006 for the whole economy, public and private sectors.
| Average Earnings Index: all employee jobs, main industrial sectors, seasonally adjusted, Great Britain | ||||||
| Including bonuses, excluding arrears | ||||||
| Whole economy (divisions 01-93) | Public sector | Private sector | ||||
| 2000=100 | Index | Annual growth (Percentage) | Index | Annual growth (Percentage) | Index | Annual growth (Percentage) |
| Note: All figures based upon the calendar year. Source: Annual Earnings Index, Office for National Statistics. | ||||||
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