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3 Apr 2008 : Column 1262W—continued
Floods: Fire Services
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many incidents involving flooding the Fire and Rescue Service attended in each year since 2000; and how many people were rescued from flooding by the service in each year. [197955]
Mr. Dhanda: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Government Office for London: Finance
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which Government funding streams have been distributed through the Government Office for London since 1997; and how much has been distributed through each such stream in each year since 1997. [196287]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon (Angela E. Smith) to the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell) on 27 June 2006, Official Report, column 296W.
I have placed in the Library a full breakdown of expenditure figures for 2005-06 and 2006-07 along with allocation details for 2007-08.
Home Information Packs: Standards
Angela Browning:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when standard
assessment procedures for home information pack accreditation schemes will be operational in England. [193039]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 10 March 2008]: Energy assessments for dwellings on construction are based on a single common methodology called the “Standard Assessment Procedure”. Energy performance certificates for newly built homes are produced using this procedure, and will be required from 6 April under the regulations implementing the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.
Homelessness: Leicestershire
Mr. Andy Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people in (a) Charnwood and (b) Loughborough were (i) homeless, (ii) rough sleeping and (iii) in temporary accommodation in each of the last 10 years. [198085]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information about local authorities’ actions under homelessness legislation is collected quarterly at local authority level. This information includes the number of households accepted by local authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore owed a main homelessness duty. The duty owed to an accepted household is to secure suitable accommodation. If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority may secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available.
A table summarising homelessness figures for each local authority for the past 10 years, including the total number of households accepted as owed the main homelessness duty, the total number of households in temporary accommodation and the mid-year estimates of the number of rough sleepers, is available in the Library of the House.
The local authority of Charnwood includes the city of Loughborough. An extract from the table is provided as follows and provides data for Charnwood for the past 10 years.
| Table A: Number of households accepted( 1) as owed a main homelessness duty during the year, 1997-98 to 2006-07 | ||||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| (1) Households eligible under homelessness legislation, found to be unintentionally homeless and in a priority need category, and consequently owed a main homelessness duty. | ||||||||||
| Table B: Number of households in temporary accommodation( 1) , March 1998 to March 2007 | ||||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| (1) Households who have been accepted as owed the main homelessness duty, those for which inquiries into whether they are owed the duty are pending, and those who were found to be intentionally homeless but are being accommodated for a reasonable period by the LA. It excludes households designated as ‘homeless at home’, that have remained in their existing accommodation and have the same rights to suitable accommodation as those in temporary accommodation arranged by the authority. | ||||||||||
| Table C: Number of rough sleepers (persons), 1998 to 2007, mid-year estimates( 1) | ||||||||||
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| (1) Estimates based on a combination of recent street counts in those areas where there is a known or suspected rough sleeping problem and of estimates made by local authorities, as reported on their HSSA returns to CLG in June of each year. | ||||||||||
Data are published in our quarterly statistical release on Statutory Homelessness, which includes a supplementary table showing the breakdown of key data, including temporary accommodation for each local authority. The supplementary tables are published on our website and placed in the Library each quarter. The latest release was published on 10 March 2008 and contains data for the period October to December 2007 at:
Since 1998, information has also been collected on the number of people who sleep rough—that is, those who are literally roofless on a single night—and these are also published on our website, nationally and by local authority at:
Housing: Local Government Finance
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what value of subsidy was paid to each local authority from the Housing Revenue Account in the last year for which figures are available. [192793]
John Healey: A table showing housing revenue account subsidy entitlement for each local housing authority in 2006-07 has been deposited in the Library of the House.
Housing revenue account (HRA) subsidy is a deficit subsidy paid to those local housing authorities where their assumed need to spend on their housing stock is greater than their assumed income to enable them to run their local authority housing. Where assumed income is greater than assumed need to spend, for 2006-07, this was recycled inside the HRA subsidy regime to help pay for the national HRA subsidy bill.
Housing: Low Incomes
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many planning appeals for affordable housing schemes were determined in each of the last three years; in how many of these cases the lead developer was a registered social landlord; and how many appeals were (a) allowed and (b) dismissed. [198145]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table shows the number of planning appeals determined in 2005, 2006 and 2007 in England that involved an element of affordable housing and how many appeals were (a) allowed and (b) dismissed. It is not possible to identify in how many of these cases the lead developer was a registered social landlord.
| Number of appeals determined | (a) Number allowed | (b) Number dismissed | |
Local Authorities: Non-Profit Making Associations
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department has given to local authorities on their procurement of service delivery from social enterprises; what assessment she has made of local authorities’ procurement practices; and if she will make a statement. [198800]
Mr. Dhanda: The “National Procurement Strategy for Local Government” (published by the then ODPM and Local Government Association in 2003) made clear that local authorities should embrace a positive approach to achieving a mixed economy of services, including through engagement with social enterprises and other suppliers. The Department will publish shortly a final report on progress with the strategy which will note that there is greater awareness of what the social enterprise sector can offer, for example by highlighting social enterprise in the Small Business Friendly Concordat.
The Department believes that local authorities should recognise and embrace diversity in the ways in which services are provided, with the focus on desired outcomes and not on whether the service is delivered by the public, private or third sectors. To this end, the Secretary of State announced at the Voice 08 Conference in Liverpool that Communities and Local Government is to set up a new Social Enterprise Unit whose remit will include working with social enterprises and local authorities on the provision of services.
Local Authorities: Pay
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on senior staff salary levels. [198656]
John Healey: Local authorities are responsible for pay and grading decisions, including those for senior officials.
The Joint Negotiating Committees for chief executives and chief officers produce guidance on national salary framework and conditions of service for local authority chief executives and chief officers. Details of how to obtain the relevant handbooks can be found on the Local Government Employers website.
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authority chief executives received annual pay packages of (a) £100,000 to £109,999, (b) £110,000 to £119,999, (c) £120,000 to £129,999, (d) £130,000 to £139,999, (e) £140,000 to £149,999 and (f) £150,000 and over in the last year for which figures are available. [198657]
John Healey: Central Government do not collect this information. However, the Local Government Employers conducts an annual survey on chief executive and chief officer salaries and workforce numbers. The results of this survey are available on their website at:
Local Government and Regeneration Division
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 6 March 2008, Official Report, column 2775W, on divisions, what (a) working groups and (b) committees there are within her Department's Local Government and Regeneration division. [194839]
Mr. Dhanda: The formal governance of the Department is set out in the departmental annual report which is available in the Library of the House and on the Department's website at:
The Local Government and Regeneration Group monitors progress and performance through three programme boards: the Local Government Reform Programme Board; the Sub-National Review Implementation and Regeneration Programme Board; and the Community Empowerment Programme Board. The group also co-ordinates a number of smaller boards, working groups and committees which look at specific areas of policy.
Local Government Finance: Housing
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the housing revenue account subsidy entitlement for each local authority with housing was for (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 in (i) percentage and (ii) cash terms; and for local authorities with negative subsidy what that negative subsidy was per property in each such year. [187327]
John Healey: A table showing the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) subsidy entitlement, both positive and negative, for each English local housing authority for 2006-2007 has been deposited in the Library of the House. No audited data is available for 2007-2008. Where HRA subsidy entitlement is positive, the table shows the percentage share each local housing authority got of the total positive HRA subsidy. Where HRA subsidy is negative, the table shows what the negative HRA subsidy is per dwelling.
Maps: Energy
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make a statement on the operation of the Ordnance Survey's Mapping for Energy service; and what funding has been allocated to it. [197410]
Mr. Dhanda: Ordnance Survey has operated a Mapping for Emergencies Service since 1988 following the Lockerbie Bomb disaster. The service provides a 24 x 7 help-line through which designated authorities dealing with responses to a wide range of civil contingencies can request mapping and geographical information to support early response. The information is delivered free of charge to the requester either directly, or through members of Ordnance Survey's High Street network of specialist Mapping and Data Centres and Licensed Partner community. The information may be in digital or hard copy form. Some pre-processing, analysis or combination with other data may be undertaken to provide the Emergency Responders with information best suited to the needs of the situation they face.
Recent examples of service provision include mapping to support management of exclusion zones for animal disease control, police operations in connection with the Ipswich murder cases, civil contingency operations connected with the beaching of the container vessel MSC Napoli, and in response to the summer flooding in the south-west midlands.
From 1999, the costs of the service were funded through the National Interest Mapping Services Agreement (NIMSA). Since NIMSA ended in December 2006, Ordnance Survey has received no direct funding for the service, which has been supported from its general trading revenue.
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