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21 July 2008 : Column 776W—continued
Local Government: Equal Pay
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which local authorities received a capitalisation direction for equal pay in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08; and what the (i) size of the direction and (ii) amount utilised was in each case. [218985]
John Healey: In 2006-07 35 local authorities applied to Communities and Local Government for capitalisation directions for equal pay. A full list of these authorities and the sums they received is available at:
The actual amount of capital expenditure used by individual authorities is available in their accounts.
In 2007-08, £500 million of equal pay capitalisation directions were allocated to 46 local authorities. The capitalisation used by each authority will be published on the Department's website in September 2008.
Local Government: Gloucestershire
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has to create a unitary authority for Gloucestershire. [220079]
John Healey: No Gloucestershire authority responded to our invitation in October 2006 to submit unitary proposals.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent estimate she has made of the (a) transition costs and (b) effect on long-term costs anticipated to arise from the establishment of a unitary authority for Gloucestershire. [220162]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) on 1 July 2008, Official Report, column 794W.
Local Government: Reorganisation
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on the use of funds released by the creation of unitary authorities. [220080]
John Healey: The Government, in their dealings with local authorities in restructuring areas have made it clear from the outset that they expect any savings generated from restructuring to be used to improve services or reduce council tax bills. This remains the case.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has for a further round of local government re-organisation; and if she will make a statement. [220164]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) on 13 March 2008, Official Report, column 586W. This remains the case.
London Assembly: Finance
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what the running costs of the Greater London Assembly were in each year since its creation; [220414]
(2) what the cost of the Greater London Assembly was in 2007-08. [220415]
John Healey: The London Assembly is a constituent part of the Greater London Authority, and my Department does not keep records of the running costs of either the assembly or authority. But this information is available in the authority's corporate plan and annual accounts which can be found on its website.
McKinsey
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 3 April 2008, Official Report, column 1250W, on departmental contracts, what the function and purpose was of the Communities' High Level Seminar supported by McKinsey. [202469]
Mr. Dhanda: The seminar brought together senior politicians and officials from local and central government to agree what needed to be done, in localities and Whitehall, to implement the new local performance framework effectively.
Further follow up work was also commissioned to take forward and implement a number of the key actions arising from the event in order to raise awareness of the framework with a wider audience and to ensure that the programme was on track to deliver ambitious local area agreements by June 2008.
Migration Impact Forum
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she plans to publish the minutes of the Migration Impact Forum held on 21 May 2008. [220119]
Mr. Dhanda: The minutes of the fourth meeting of the Migration Impacts Forum (MIF) on 21 May were placed on the Department's website at:
on 17 July, having been agreed by MIF members at the fifth Forum meeting on 16 July.
Multiple Occupation
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if her Department will publish (a) the findings of the research it has commissioned into houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and possible planning responses and (b) the membership of her Department's HMO working group. [219533]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department will publish the findings of the research it has commissioned into houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and possible planning responses when the research report has been finalised.
Ecotec Consulting presented emerging findings of their research to a range of stakeholders at a seminar on 9 April 2008. The participants included representatives of local authorities, universities and students, the National HMO lobby and landlords.
The Government have not established a formal HMO working group but will continue to engage stakeholders in future work on this issue.
Personal Care Services: Licensing
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what provisions there are for local authorities outside London to license establishments carrying out (a) botox treatment, (b) dental whitening, (c) spray tanning, (d) ultra violet tanning, (e) tattooing, (f) piercing, (g) acupuncture and (h) electrolysis; and what plans she has to bring forward proposals for further local authority licensing of the beauty treatment sector. [210417]
Mr. Dhanda: CLG does not have policy responsibility for licensing issues relating to these establishments.
Personal Injury
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the highest 10 payments made by her Department in settlement of personal injury claims brought against it were over the last 12 months for which figures are available; which of those cases were (a) contested and (b) uncontested by the Department; and what the nature of the incident was in each case. [216677]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department for Communities and Local Government has settled the following four cases over the 12 months to July 2008:
| Nature of incident | £ |
Liability was not contested in any of these cases. The amount of damages in each case was agreed by negotiation with the claimants' solicitors.
Places of Change Programme
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many capital grants her Department has awarded under the Places of Change programme and subsequently rescinded following local opposition. [220369]
Mr. Iain Wright: No grants from the Places of Change programme have been rescinded following local opposition since the programme commenced in April 2008. Such decisions would be taken on a case-by-case basis.
Places of Change programme projects are subject to the planning process, which involves formal consultation with the community, when any local opposition can be taken into account.
Planning: Recreation Spaces
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will require local authorities to publish an audit of their compliance with Planning and Policy Guidance 17. [214970]
Mr. Iain Wright: We have no current plans to require local authorities to publish audits of their compliance with Planning Policy Guidance Note 17.
Regional Government
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has to consult the devolved administrations on the proposed European Charter for Regional Democracy. [219002]
John Healey: The ‘Memorandum of Understanding and Supplementary Agreements’ between the United Kingdom Government and the devolved Administrations provides that the Government will consult the devolved Administrations before deciding its position on an international matter that affects the responsibility of those Administrations. The Government followed this procedure when deciding their position on the proposed regional charter, and would do so again before taking any decision to modify its position.
Rented Housing
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate her Department has made of the average (a) age of tenant and (b) length of tenure of those living in the private rented sector in the latest period for which figures are available. [219523]
Mr. Iain Wright: Based on the 2006-07 Survey of English Housing the median age of a private rented sector tenant is estimated at 34 years.
The median length of time spent in their current home, as reported by private sector tenants, is about 1.6 years. The time spent in their current home is, of course, less than the total time that they will have spent in this home by the time they next move.
The median is a more useful indicator than average for both age of tenant and length of residence. A median length of residence of 1.6 years means that about half of all private sector tenants have been in their current home for less than 1.6 years.
Social Rented Housing
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people are awaiting social housing in (a) Chorley, (b) the rest of the North West region and (c) England. [212286]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information on local authority waiting lists is collected in respect of households rather than individuals. Where local authorities and registered social landlords operate a common register, households registered with the RSL will be included in the data. However, registered social landlords are independent bodies and can keep their own waiting lists.
In 2007, the number of households on the local authority housing waiting list in Chorley was 1,897, the rest of the North West region was 212,597 and in England was 1,674,421.
Information on the number of households on local authorities' waiting lists broken down by Government office region and local authority for 1997 to 2007 is published on the Communities and Local Government website in Table 600 at:
Copies of this table have been deposited in the Library.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average social rent is in each region for (a) one bedroom, (b) two bedroom, (c) three bedroom and (d) four bedroom properties. [219871]
Mr. Iain Wright: Average rent information is available for local authority housing and registered social landlord housing separately and is provided in table 1 and table 2 as follows. Figures for the RSL sector are based on data collected by the Housing Corporation.
| Table 1: Average local authority rents, for one, two, three and four bedroom dwellings in each region in 2006-07 | ||||
| £ per week | ||||
| Region | One bed | Two bed | Three bed | Four bed |
| Source: CLG Second Subsidy Claims Form (unaudited). | ||||
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