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26 Feb 2008 : Column 1412W—continued
Domestic Visits
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which stakeholders were met by Regional Ministers during official visits to regions. [188733]
Mr. Dhanda: All Regional Ministers have taken part in a number of high level engagements within their regions including meetings with local authorities, regional bodies and other organisations, attendance at stakeholder events and visits to local projects and communities. To provide further details would incur disproportionate costs.
Empty Property: North West
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) whether her Department is on course to meet the targets to reduce the rate of long-term vacant dwellings (a) in the North West to 1.65 per cent. and (b) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 1.35 per cent. [187339]
(2) what intermediate targets have been set for the reduction of the rate of long-term vacant dwellings in (a) the North West and (b) Yorkshire and Humber ahead of the 2016 target. [187340]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 20 February 2008]: Overall, since 2003 there has been a reduction in long term vacancy rates in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West, and they are broadly on trajectory. For a number of years up to 2003 vacancy rates in the North West were increasing. However, since 2004 the vacancy rate trend in the North West shows a marked improvement. We expect long term vacancy rates in housing market renewal pathfinder areas both in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West to fall as they move into the next phase of their interventions.
The Department’s annual report for 2007 includes a trajectory which illustrates the intermediate stages towards achieving the targets by 2016.
Geographical Information Systems
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many private sector companies were consulted on the draft of the UK location strategy before it was submitted to Ministers. [188655]
Mr. Dhanda: The process of drafting the UK Location Strategy involved two consultation phases:
(i) Initial information gathering and consultation arranged and facilitated by consultants who were commissioned by the UK Geographic Information Panel (GI Panel) to draft the strategy;
(ii) Wide consultation across Government during preparation and iteration of the draft, and following recognition that it was appropriate for the strategy to focus on public sector information.
During the first consultation phase, the consultants arranged three workshop sessions. An open invitation to participate was extended for the first of these events. It was attended by over 90 delegates of whom more than 50 per cent. were from the private sector. Two further closed sessions involved delegates selected and invited by the consultants because of their personal knowledge and expertise: 16 of the 44 invitees to these sessions were employed in the private sector. The consultants also extended an open invitation for further contributions via the GI Panel website and invited written submissions and the opportunity for personal interview by one of the consultants. The consultants received a number of written statements including contributions from three private sector trade associations and 13 individuals.
In addition, the GI Panel itself includes representatives from the Association of British Insurers, the Demographic User Group, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Association for Geographic Information, together representing the views of the wider UK geographic information, including over 50,000 companies and individual professionals from the private sector.
Government Offices for the Regions: Finance
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what Government funding streams are available to the Government Offices for the Regions; and if she will make a statement. [188909]
Mr. Dhanda: The Government Offices for the Regions have specific responsibility for an administration running cost budget and a capital budget.
Programme budgets administered by the Government Offices are the responsibility of the Secretaries of State for the relevant sponsor Departments. The Departments delegate authority to the Regional Directors to spend against their programmes, though all expenditure incurred is recorded in the accounts of the Department concerned.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) of 6 February 2008, Official Report, column 1180W, on Government Offices for the Regions: finance, what the total expenditure was of each of the Government offices in 2006-07. [189236]
Mr. Dhanda: The total running cost expenditure in each of the Government offices in 2006-07 is as follows:
| Government office | Amount (£000) |
Housing: Debt
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much historic housing debt each housing authority owed at the latest date for which figures are available; and what proportion of social housing in each housing authority area met the decent homes standard on that date. [186843]
Mr. Iain Wright: No distinction is drawn between ‘historic debt’ (for instance debt entered into in previous financial years) and ‘non-historic debt’ (for instance debt entered into in the current financial year). Reported housing debt and the percentage of their housing stock that meets the decent homes standard for each authority in 2006-07 is given in the following table:
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