| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
2 Apr 2008 : Column 924W—continued
Citizen's Advice Bureau: Finance
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department provided for the citizen's advice bureau in each of the local housing allowance pathfinder areas to support money advice services. [181374]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
The DWP has paid out around £59 million for the overall implementation of the local housing allowance in the local authorities. This money was for a range of implementation activity. The payments were made in August 2007 and included funds for money management advice, IT costs, training, communications and advertising.
As each local authority decides whether to provide in house money advice services or to contract this out, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of how much funding was used by individual local authorities in support of the services provided by citizen's advice bureau.
Council Tax: Valuation
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2008, Official Report, column 613W, on council tax: valuation, what steps were taken as a result of the consequentials identified following the data enhancement that took place in the Council Tax Revaluation 2007 programme; and what estimate the group valuation officers made of the number of properties involved in the programme. [193917]
John Healey: No detailed analysis was undertaken and any action was dealt with as part of the normal duty to maintain the current council tax lists.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2008, Official Report, column 613W, on council tax: valuation, how many consequentials following data enhancement were identified by the Valuation Office Agency; and what actions her Department has taken as a result of such identifications. [193976]
John Healey: The issue was one of potential banding changes as a consequence of data enhancement. No detailed analysis was undertaken and they were dealt with as part of the normal duty to maintain the current council tax lists.
Disabled Facilities Grants
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many disabled facilities grant awards were made in each of the last five years. [196987]
Mr. Iain Wright: The disabled facilities grant is a mandatory grant used to provide adaptations to the homes of disabled people. Local authorities in England report their annual disabled facilities grant expenditure and the number of recipients of disabled facilities grant through the housing strategy statistical appendix. The 2006-07 housing strategy statistical appendix report was recently published. The following table sets out the number of disabled facilities grant recipients in England from 2002-03 to 2006-07:
| Number of recipients | |
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the statement of 25 February, Official Report, columns 66-67WS, on the national strategy for housing in an ageing society: disabled facilities grant (funding), what guidance will be issued to local authorities to ensure that funding provided for the disabled facilities grant (DFG) is spent on DFG related purposes once the ring fencing for this funding is removed. [196997]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 27 March 2008]: The removal of the ringfence in respect of the funding for disabled facilities grant will be piloted in a number of local authorities from 2008-09. The pilots will be evaluated and lessons learnt through this process. This will inform good practice guidance for all other local authorities before the ring fence is removed in 2010-11.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many disabled facilities grant awards have been made at the maximum level of £25,000 in the last five years. [196998]
Mr. Iain Wright
[holding answer 27 March 2008]: The disabled facilities grant is a mandatory grant used to provide adaptations to the homes of disabled people.
Local authorities in England report their total annual disabled facilities grant expenditure and the number of recipients of disabled facilities grant through the housing strategy statistical appendix. This does not include information on the individual level of grants awarded.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many disabled facilities grant awards the Government estimate will be made at the new maximum level of £30,000 in the three years after its introduction in April 2008; and what the effect on costs will be. [196999]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 27 March 2008]: In 2004, the Government launched a cross departmental review of the disabled facilities grant programme. Bristol university were commissioned to carry out an independent study of the programme and make recommendations for change. One of the recommendations for change was to increase the maximum level for a disabled facilities grant. Bristol estimated that increasing the limit from £25,000 to £30,000 would impact on the national budget in the region of £4.3 million. It is estimated that this increase will affect in the region of 1,000 grant applications each year. The national budget for the disabled facilities grant programme increases by £25 million in 2008-09 and then by £10 million in each of the following two years. This increase meets the cost of the changes made to the programme as well as helping to address the continued growth in demand for adaptations.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 25 February 2008, Official Report, columns 66-67WS, on the national strategy for housing in an ageing society: disabled facilities grant (funding), how many disabled facilities grant awards the Government estimate will be made in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11. [197107]
Mr. Iain Wright: The disabled facilities grant is a mandatory grant used to provide adaptations to the homes of disabled people. Local authorities in England report their annual disabled facilities grant expenditure and the number of recipients of disabled facilities grant through the housing strategy statistical appendix.
The figures provided by the 2007 housing strategy statistical appendix estimates a total of 42,014 will receive disabled facilities grants in 2008-09. The Department does not hold estimated numbers beyond 2008-09.
Energy Performance Certificates: Complaints
Angela Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what complaints procedures are available to those paying for energy performance certificates. [193042]
Caroline Flint
[holding answer 10 March 2008]: Details of the complaints procedure available to those paying for energy performance certificates are set out in the accreditation scheme standards for Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) and Commercial Energy
Assessors (CEAs) respectively. A copy of the accreditation scheme standards for DEAs is available at:
The accreditation scheme standards for CEAs are currently being updated. They will be published on the CLG website shortly.
Fire Services: Manpower
Paul Holmes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many
fire-fighters there were in each local authority area in the East Midlands in each year since 1997. [187034]
Mr. Dhanda: Available information, for each Fire and Rescue Service area within East Midlands, is shown as follows:
| Firefighters( 1) in East Midlands 1997-2006 | ||||||
| Derbyshire | Leicestershire | Lincolnshire | Northamptonshire | Nottinghamshire | Total East Midlands | |
| (1) Includes all roles of fire officers including chief officers. | ||||||
Numbers of firefighters can fluctuate when firefighters retire and are not immediately replaced. These figures provide a snapshot of figures at one point during the year.
Flood Control: Finance
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what criteria her Department will use for allocating European Union solidarity flood funding. [198396]
John Healey: The recommendation to award the UK funding from the European Union Solidarity Fund to assist with recovery from the floods of 2007 was approved by the European Union Budgetary Committee on 28 February 2008. We are currently working alongside the European Commission to draft the implementation agreement which will allow the money to be paid to the UK, and we expect to receive the money in spring.
The nature of the EUSF is that it is to reimburse emergency operations undertaken by public bodies, including central Government.
Regulations governing the EUSF state that it can only be spent on works in the following four categories:
immediate restoration to working order of infrastructure and plant in the fields of energy, water and waste water, telecommunications, transport, health and education—in most circumstances costs relating to energy, water, waste water and telecommunications will not be covered as these costs are borne by the private utilities companies;
providing temporary accommodation and funding rescue services to meet the immediate needs of the population concerned;
immediate securing of preventive infrastructures and measures of immediate protection of the cultural heritage; and
immediate cleaning up of disaster-stricken areas, including natural zones.
Home Information Packs
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the average amount of time taken for a conveyancing search to be completed in (a) Milton Keynes unitary authority and (b) England, (i) before the introduction of the home improvement pack legislation and (ii) after the introduction of the legislation. [197340]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 31 March 2008]: My Department does not hold the information in the form requested. Based on our survey of local authority property searches services of April 2007, we estimate that on average, property searches took five days in England. As part of this survey, Milton Keynes unitary authority reported an average time of seven days.
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) home information packs and (b) home condition reports have been commissioned to date. [198259]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 1 April 2008]: The commercial and private nature of a home owner’s decision when to place their property on the market for sale means this information is not available in a robust form. We therefore do not hold this information centrally in the format requested.
Housing: Disabled
Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent by the London borough of Enfield on improving homes for people with disabilities in each of the last three years. [196788]
Mr. Iain Wright: The disabled facilities grant is a mandatory grant used to provide adaptations to the homes of disabled people. Local authorities in England report their annual disabled facilities grant expenditure through the housing strategy statistical appendix. The 2006-07 housing strategy statistical appendix report was published recently. The 2004-05 to 2006-07 expenditure by the London borough of Enfield is provided in the following table. Communities and Local Government provide 60 per cent. of the value of the disabled facilities grant to local authorities. Local authorities fund the remaining 40 per cent. from their own resources. Expenditure figures for 2007-08 are not yet available.
The following table sets out disabled facilities grant expenditure for the London borough of Enfield.
| £ | |||
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |