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30 Jan 2008 : Column 440W—continued
Housing: Greater London
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Government received in capital receipts from housing-related asset sales (a) in total and (b) from right-to-buy sales from each London borough in 2005-06. [179334]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table indicates the amount that each London borough, through the process of pooling—the mechanism by which all local authority housing capital receipts are recycled for investment—paid to the Secretary of State out of its receipts arising from the sales in 2005-06 of its housing land. It is currently not possible for the equivalent information to be provided separately for the authorities' Right to Buy (RTB) receipts, other than at disproportionate cost, although the vast majority of pooled receipts are RTB receipts.
| Authority | Amount of 2005-06 receipts pooled (£) |
| (1) The figures for these five authorities are provisional, so the total figure is provisional as well. | |
Housing: Low Incomes
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many social landlords have not signed up to the Respect Standard for Housing Management. [183215]
Mr. Iain Wright:
Over 380 landlords have signed the Respect Standard covering around 70 per cent. of all social housing stock in England. Approximately 1,620
social landlords in England have not signed up to the Respect Standard which comprise mostly of small housing associations.
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many housing association tenants there are in England; how many have the (a) full and (b) preserved right to buy; and how many are likely to qualify for the right to acquire scheme. [183251]
Mr. Iain Wright: There are 1.873 million housing association tenants in England. Approximately 28,000 (1.5 per cent.) are secure tenants of non-charitable housing associations who have (a) the right to buy. Another 1 million tenants (53 per cent.), who transferred with their homes from local authorities since 1988, have retained (b) a preserved right to buy.
In addition, over 188,000 housing association tenants (10 per cent.) may qualify for the right to acquire because their homes have been built with public funds since 1 April 1997.
Some of the tenants of the 871,241 homes which have transferred from local authorities to housing associations since 1 April 1997 may also qualify for the right to acquire scheme.
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the (a) Brian Pomery review of shared equity and (b) evaluation of Social HomeBuy scheme research completed in December 2007. [183253]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government appointed Brian Pomery to help them follow up the shared equity task force report and advise on ways to develop the private sector shared equity market. The work is ongoing.
The evaluation report of the Social HomeBuy scheme is expected shortly and will be published in due course.
Infrastructure Planning Commission
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the planned yearly cost to the public purse is of the new (a) Infrastructure Planning Commission and (b) Homes and Communities Agency. [182563]
Mr. Iain Wright: The costs of the Homes and Communities Agency are set out in the Housing and Regeneration Bill impact assessment. This states that the one-off cost of setting up the Homes and Communities Agency will be £20 million over three years and the average annual cost of the Agency from 2009 will be approximately £17 million per annum. However, the average annual benefit to the public purse anticipated for the period 2007-08 to 2013-14 is £193.7 million per annum. This will be gained from more streamlined working, simpler delivery chains, a more strategic approach to operations, a single identity of a national housing and regeneration agency, harnessing scarce skills and increased negotiating skills for procurement.
The costs of the Infrastructure Planning Commission are set out in the Planning Bill impact assessment. This states that the one-off cost of setting up the IPC will be £5 million. Our intention is that the administrative running costs of the IPC will be met through fees from applicants, and not from the public purse. The fact that the IPC will examine cases instead of Ministers will mean savings to central Government of £0.6 million per annum and to the Planning Inspectorate of £0.3 million per annum.
INTERREG Programme
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what role her Department is playing in the implementation of the European Union’s (a) INTERREG IVA, (b) INTERREG IVB and (c) INTERREG IVC programmes; and what form of control system is being put in place to monitor the outcomes for each. [182553]
John Healey: My Department has been involved in the development of all three INTERREG programmes through leading the UK representation on working groups overseeing their preparation and agreeing the priorities.
The draft IVA programmes were submitted to the European Commission in mid-November and should be implemented by May 2008.
The IVB and IVC programmes have been approved. My Department’s officials, with their regional colleagues, are representatives on the Monitoring and Steering Committees which decide the content and direction of the programmes as well as project selection.
The Managing, Certifying and Audit Authorities for each of these programmes are responsible for ensuring that the management and control arrangements comply with European Commission regulations. None of these authorities are based in the UK.
Leadership Centre for Local Government: Finance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding was provided by the public purse to the Leadership Centre for Local Government in each year since its creation; and what the annual budget is for the next three years. [182579]
John Healey: The Leadership Centre for local government was set up in July 2004 following extensive discussion with the Local Government Association and other local government bodies to improve the quality of leadership in local government. The centre was paid £2 million in 2004-05, £4.465 million in 2005-06, £3.267 million in 2006-07 and £3.267 million in 2007-08.
For the CSR07 spending round (2008-11), £2 million annually has been set aside to continue the work of the Leadership Centre.
Local Authorities: Data Protection
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance has been given to local authorities on the processing of personal data outside the European Economic Area, either directly or via contractors. [182594]
John Healey: It is the responsibility of local authorities to seek their own advice, including advice from the Information Commissioner and his website, regarding their legitimate processing of personal data. The Information Commissioner provides detailed guidance on the processing of personal data outside the European Economic Area, either directly or via contractors, in two pieces of guidance on his website: ‘International Transfers of Personal Data’
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_ protection/practical_application/generic_guidance_ international_transfers_v2.pdf
and ‘The Eighth Data Protection Principle and international data transfers’
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_ protection/detailed_specialist_guides/international_ transfers_legal_guidance_v2.0_300606.pdf
The Department does not directly provide guidance to local authorities on issues concerning the Data Protection Act 1998.
Local Authorities: Disclosure of Information
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 10 December 2007, Official Report, column 147W, on local authorities: disclosure of information, if she will place in the Library a copy of the guidance issued to the regional assemblies in March 2006. [182885]
John Healey: I have arranged for copies of ‘Guidance on the General Principles of Designation of Voluntary Regional Assemblies’, issued in March 2006, to be placed in the Library of the House.
Local Government Finance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what changes to Government policy on local government finance will follow from the signing of the new Central-Local concordat. [182587]
John Healey: The concordat sets out the areas we will seek to develop with local government, and such work is under way. It reaffirms our commitment to deliver greater flexibility for local authorities to make decisions on their own funding priorities, and over the next three years we are moving around £5.6 billion into general grants which are not ring-fenced. We have undertaken to work with local government to provide greater clarity and transparency for local people on the levels of public funding going into local areas, and we have delivered the first three-year settlement for each council.
Local Government Finance: Participation
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 1152W, on local government finance: participation, (1) whether the local ballots would be binding on the local authority under her proposals; and whether there would be a threshold number of ballots above which a decision would be valid; [182057]
(2) who would take the decision on whether to ballot a local community on spending decisions under her proposals. [182058]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 1152W.
Local Government: Devon
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she expects to publish the terms of reference for the boundary committee review of local government structures in Devon; and when she expects the review to be completed. [183090]
John Healey: We intend shortly to issue our request to the boundary committee to advise, by a date specified in the request, on whether for Exeter city and the remaining Devon county area there could be an alternative unitary solution.
Local Government: Planning
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local government enforcement orders on planning issues have been successfully enforced since 1996. [183091]
Mr. Iain Wright: Statistical information on different types of enforcement action by local planning authorities is published in “Development Control Statistics: England 2006/2007”, available on the Department's website
www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planning statistics/developmentcontrolstatistics/.
However, we do not hold centrally or publish information about the outcomes of such action. The Planning Inspectorate publish information about appeals against enforcement notices and their outcomes on their website.
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