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19 Oct 2007 : Column 1332Wcontinued
Table 2: Registered Social Landlord lettings to new social housing tenants in England | |
RSL lets | |
Note: As reported by Registered Social Landlords. Rounded to nearest 100 Source: Continuous Recording of Social Lettings Log |
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average price for a (a) house, (b) detached house and (c) flat was in each local authority area in England and Wales in (i) April 1991, (ii) May 1997 and (iii) the most recent period for which figures are available, according to Land Registry data. [158196]
Mr. Iain Wright: HM Land Registry data for 1991 is unavailable.
A table presenting HM Land Registry data on the (a) average house price, (b) average price for a detached house and (c) average price for a flat by local authority area for May 1997 and March 2007 (provisional) has been placed in the Library of the House.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the target of 50 homes set by the West Midlands Regional Housing Board for settlements of less than 10,000 for the three year comprehensive spending review period in addressing housing need in those rural areas. [157400]
Mr. Iain Wright: The target set by the Regional Housing Board of 50 homes was set prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07) announced by the Chancellor on 9 October. West Midlands' assessment of need for affordable housing was based on the allocation received for the 2006 to 2008 funding period. There was the anticipation that the strategy would need to be revisited once the final CSR07 allocation is known.
On 16 October my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Housing, announced a £10.2 billion package for housing and we anticipate that this will support a 50 per cent. increase in annual social rents outputs by 2010-11 in comparison with this year (2007-08) in addition to other measures to tackle the need for affordable housing.
In the Housing Green Paper, we announced that we would be establishing a national target for rural affordable housing across the three years 2008 to 2011. With this in mind, my Department is working with the regional assemblies to assess need for rural affordable housing in their areas and what provision should be in the light of the CSR settlement.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the target of 65 homes set by the East of England Regional Housing Board for settlements of less than 10,000 for the three year comprehensive spending review period in addressing housing need in those rural areas. [157401]
Mr. Iain Wright: The target set by the East of England Regional Housing Board of 65 homes was set prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07) announced by the Chancellor on 9 October. The East of England's assessment of need for affordable housing was based on the level of funding received for the 2006 to 2008 funding period and projected forward to arrive at an indicative allocation for 2008 to 2011.
On 16 October my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Housing, announced a £10.2 billion package for housing and we anticipate that this will support a 50 per cent. increase in annual social rents outputs by 2010-11 in comparison with this year (2007-08) in addition to other measures to tackle the need for affordable housing.
In the Housing Green Paper, we announced that we would be establishing a national target for rural affordable housing across the three years 2008 to 2011. With this in mind, my Department is working with the regional assemblies to assess need for rural affordable housing in their areas and what provision should be in the light of the CSR settlement.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the Valuation Office Agencys value significant codes of (a) ZL, (b) ZI and (c) ZH have a (i) positive and (ii) negative co-efficient applied to the variable in the multiple regression formula used in its automated valuation model. [155693]
John Healey: Coefficients are not applied to a variable in the multiple regression formula. Multiple regression analysis determines whether an attribute is statistically significant in explaining an element of variation in the price achieved in a property transaction. Whether a positive or negative coefficient results for any attribute will vary (a) each time analysis of sales information is undertaken (b) from area to area and (c) between property types (e.g. flats and houses).
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate her Department and its agencies have made of the amount and proportion of land-banking by property developers in the form of not initiating developments which have been granted planning permission. [157680]
Mr. Iain Wright: There is no centrally held information from which we could estimate the amount and proportion of land banking by property developers.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has to increase the powers of redress for local residents in relation to services provided by local authorities. [157488]
John Healey: The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill contains a provision to take forward the Community Call for Action mechanism which contains a statutory process for ward councillors to act on concerns from the local community to resolve problems with local government services.
As part of the Governance of Britain Green Paper the Government committed to consulting on ways of increasing citizens powers of redress to scrutinise and improve the delivery of local services and to consider a duty that requires local authorities to consider and investigate petitions from local communities.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what use is made of damping mechanisms in the allocation of formula grants to local authorities; and if she will make a statement. [157666]
John Healey:
Within the local government finance settlements for 2006-07 and 2007-08, there are two damping sub-blocks within the Relative Needs
Formulaeone for Childrens Social Care and one for Younger Adults Personal Social Services.
We also use floor damping in the final calculation of formula grant.
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps her Department is taking to ensure local authorities support social enterprise. [156844]
John Healey: The Department launched a third sector strategy discussion paper on 7 June which included consideration of the need of third sector organisations for more sustainable forms of investment and improvements in local partnership working.
More than 150 written responses have been received. Over 450 delegates took part in eight regional consultation events on the paper. In addition, the responses received are being considered and we aim to publish a final strategy, including propositions of how the Department and local authorities can work in partnership and support the third sector, including social enterprises.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether she plans to introduce legislation to introduce a duty on local authorities to consider petitions. [157467]
John Healey: As the recently published; Governance of Britain Green Paper states, the Government are considering introducing a duty that requires local authorities to consider and investigate petitions from local communities, and guarantees petitioners and the wider community a response on the issues which have been raised. We intend to consult about this in the near future.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) whether she plans to introduce legislation to require local ballots on spending decisions by local authorities; [157465]
(2) whether she plans to require local authorities to implement citizens' juries. [157472]
John Healey: In the recently published Governance of Britain Green Paper the Government announced their desire to help create active citizens and empowered communities who are fully engaged in local decision-making. As part of this process the Government have proposed a number of ideas to debate and consult on, including introducing powers to ballot on spending decisions and consulting on major decisions through mechanisms such as Citizen's Juries.
Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what targets her Department sets for local authorities, including under the public service agreement, local area agreement and
best value performance indicator regimes, in relation to the (a) number of benefit awards and (b) number of unclaimed benefits. [157683]
John Healey: Neither Communities and Local Government nor the Department for Work and Pensions sets targets for local authorities on the number of benefit awards and the number of unclaimed benefits. Local authorities may, if they wish, include targets on these issues in their local area agreements (including for reward) which are agreed with central Government.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what date she expects the next Local Government Finance Settlement statement to take place. [157667]
John Healey: The date of the statement will be announced by the Leader of the House in due course.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of local government revenue expenditure in England was financed through council tax in each year since 1996-97. [157641]
John Healey: Outturn information for years up to 2005-06 can be found in Table 3.5c of Local Government Financial Statistics England No. 17 2007 at the following web address:
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has for a concordat between local and central Government. [157468]
John Healey: The Governance of Britain Green Paper contains a commitment that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (CLG) will work with the Local Government Association (LGA) to establish a concordat to govern the relations between central and local government. Discussions between CLG and the LGA are ongoing. CLG will provide further detail about publication of the concordat in due course.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans the Government have to use powers in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill, if enacted, to delay the date of the May 2009 local elections. [158073]
John Healey: No decisions have been taken as to whether, and if so how, to use the powers which may be available if the Bill is enacted to move the date of the 2009 local elections to coincide with the 2009 European elections.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what expenditure has been incurred to date by her Department on the Local Government Today television channel. [155710]
Mr. Dhanda: As at 3 October 2007 no publicity expenditure has been incurred by Communities and Local Government on the Local Government Today television channel.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will amend planning guidance on mobile telephone masts to make disclosure of mast locations and power levels to a Sitefinder website or equivalent a condition of planning permission. [157501]
Mr. Iain Wright: We have no plans to amend planning guidance in this way. The Government and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) remain committed to the principles underlying Sitefinder.
Each of the mobile network operators is in discussion with Ofcom and the Government on the future provision of data to Sitefinder so that members of the public will continue to be able to access information about the location of base stations in their neighbourhood.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the internal guidance used by the Valuation Office Agency on undertaking assessment casework for non-domestic rates valuations. [152527]
John Healey: A copy of the relevant instruction and guidance to Valuation Office Agency staff on undertaking assessment casework for business rates has been placed in the Library.
David Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations she has received on the Planning White Paper. [157442]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Planning White Paper covered a wide variety of issues and included a number of questions upon which we went to consultation. This closed on 17 August 2007. We received over 30,000 responses which we are currently in the process of analysing. The Government will produce a summary of responses, including next steps, shortly. However, Ministers continue to receive a range of letters and other representations on the issues raised in the Planning White Paper.
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