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28 Oct 2008 : Column 944W—continued
Communities and Local Government
Aerials
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many mobile telephone masts were constructed in each year since 1997. [229365]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department does not hold this information. Local planning authorities are not required to notify the Department where a mast has been installed following a prior approval application.
Arc Manche
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether representatives of (a) her Department and its predecessors and (b) the Government Office for the South East have attended (i) formal or (ii) informal meetings of (A) the Arc Manche Assembly and (B) its committees since the Assembly's inception. [230298]
John Healey: No representatives of my Department or the Government Office for the South East have attended any meetings of the Arc Manche Assembly or its committees since the Assembly's inception.
Audit Commission
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government who the Audit Commission’s appointed auditors are. [230329]
John Healey: The accounts of the Audit Commission are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Council Housing: Repairs and Maintenance
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authority-owned dwellings underwent improvements to their (a) central heating and (b) insulation in each year since 1996-97; and how much was spent on each kind of work in each year. [230256]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department is not able to provide figures on central heating dating back to 1996-97. For local authorities, statistics on central heating and insulation works were first collected from 2001, initially through the Housing Investment Programme (HIP) and subsequently through the Business Plan Statistical Appendix (BPSA) from 2002. The following table displays the number of dwellings (and associated expenditure) receiving works each year, as reported by local authorities.
| Local authority-owned dwellings and expenditure on central heating and insulation | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| Note: Improvement work includes works of a capital nature: installation, replacement or major repair. Sources: 1. Figures for 2002-07 from the Business Plan Statistical Appendix (BPSA). 2000 figures from the BPSA's predecessor—the Housing Investment Programme. 2. Figures include those authorities which have chosen to retain their housing stock and also Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMCs). | |||||||
Council Housing: Standards
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what date each local authority is expected to meet the decent homes standard. [229405]
Mr. Iain Wright: The information requested has been placed in the Library of the House.
Council Tax
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the implications of the recent Court of Appeal ruling on increased traffic and council tax bands for her Department's policy; and what the cost to the public purse of the legal case was. [230299]
John Healey: The Court of Appeal's ruling endorsed the Valuation Office Agency's existing practice in relation to the valuation for council tax of dwellings affected by increased traffic noise. The overall cost of the legal case to the public purse has not been calculated.
Demolition: Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 20 May 2008, Official Report, column 262W, on demolition: finance, if she will now place in the Library the funding agreements. [230153]
Mr. Iain Wright: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) on 6 October 2008, Official Report, column 340W.
Departmental Non-Departmental Public Bodies
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 21 October 2008, Official Report, columns 227-28W, on departmental non-departmental public bodies, if she will provide the equivalent information for all advisory non-departmental bodies with which funding has been agreed with her Department in 2008 to 2011. [231210]
Mr. Khan: The Department currently sponsors five advisory non-departmental public bodies as follows:
Advisory Panel for the Beacons Scheme: www.beacons.idea.gov.uk
Advisory Panel on Standards for Planning Inspectorate: www.apos.gsi.gov.uk
Building Regulations Advisory Committee: www.communities.gov.uk/brac
National Community Forum: www.communities/communityempowerment/whatweare/ncf/
National Housing and Planning Advice Unit: www.communities.gov.uk/nhpau
I refer the hon. Member to the Department's publication ‘Public Bodies 2007’, which is available via our website at:
This year's publication will be available by the end of November 2008.
Departmental Recruitment Agencies
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which recruitment agencies (a) her Department and (b) its agencies have used in the last three years; and how much was paid to each of these recruitment agencies in each year. [230943]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government spent the following on temporary agency staff between 2005 and 2007:
| £ | |
Changes in the way financial data were collected in 2007-08 means that total spend on agency temps could be made available only at disproportionate cost. Names of companies and breakdown of spend per company could also be made available only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which companies were used by her Department for providing temporary staff in each of the last five years; and what the value of contracts with each such company was in each of those years. [229081]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government spent the following on temporary agency staff between 2003 and 2007:
| £ | |
Changes in the way financial data were collected in 2007-08 means that total spend on agency temps could be made available only at disproportionate cost. Names of companies and breakdown of spend per company could also be made available only at disproportionate cost.
Design for Manufacture
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the location and address of each site in the Design for Manufacture competition is; and which sites have completed their home building process. [230338]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Design for Manufacture competition, which was launched in April 2005, was run by English Partnerships on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government. The competition was the Government’s challenge to the house building industry to build high-quality, well-designed homes for £60,000. The figure of £60,000 relates to a target construction cost for building a two bedroom home and does not reflect the development cost or sale price.
The 10 sites included in the Design for Manufacture competition are:
Site 6, Oxley Park, Milton Keynes;
Former TA Centre, Oxford Road, Aylesbury;
Site D2, Upton, Northampton;
Area 2, Allerton Bywater, near Leeds;
Former Renny Lodge Hospital, London Road, Newport Pagnell;
Former Park Prewett Hospital, Kingsclere Road, Basingstoke;
Leybourne Grange, Maidstone;
Rowan Lodge School, Merton, London;
School Road, Hastings; and
Former Greenhithe Territorial Army Centre, Horn's Cross, Dartford.
Build out is mostly being taken forward on a phased basis and construction work is well advanced on most of the sites, with a number of phases completed, homes occupied and communities established. Renny Lodge in Newport Pagnell is the only site where all of the homes and public realm being built through the competition have been completed.
Eco-Towns
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what support her Department provided to Shelter for the production of the document on the proposed eco-town at Long Marston, entitled Middle Quinton: Eco-town—the Facts. [228354]
Mr. Iain Wright: We agreed to support the publication “Middle Quinton: Eco-town—the facts”, and similar ones for the other shortlisted eco-town locations, to ensure that people potentially affected by eco-towns have information about housing need in their area and how to take part in consultation. In terms of “Middle Quinton: Eco-town—the facts” we have contributed £7,366 (+ VAT) to Shelter for the production of the publication.
These publications do not promote eco-town locations, but provide information about the housing situation in and around potential eco-town locations, so that people are able to make an informed input to decisions about whether an eco-town should go ahead. Any views expressed in the document are those of the authors and not my Department.
Empty Property
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 1 September 2008, Official Report, columns 1421-22W, on empty property, if she will place in the Library a copy of the letter sent to local authorities seeking information on how reforms to the empty property rate are working. [230127]
John Healey: A copy of the letter has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what powers local authorities have to take action against empty non-domestic dwellings which harm the amenity of the local environment. [230297]
Mr. Iain Wright: Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 provides a local planning authority (LPA) with the power, in certain circumstances, to take steps requiring land (including buildings) to be cleaned up when its condition adversely affects the amenity of the area. The use of section 215 by LPAs is discretionary and it is up to the LPA to decide whether a notice under these provisions would be appropriate in a particular case, taking account of the local circumstances.
This power has been effectively used on large vacant industrial sites, town centre street frontages, rural sites, derelict buildings and semi-complete development as well as the more typical run-down residential properties and overgrown gardens.
The Government have issued guidance on the use of this power which can be found in “Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Section 215 Best Practice Guidance” which can be accessed via the following link:
Potential sites can sometimes go beyond the remit of a s215 notice and the guidance sets out that there may be other more appropriate powers that an LPA can rely upon in order to effect a remedy, for example:
ss76-79 of the Building Act for defective premises, dangerous building, ruinous and dilapidated buildings and neglected sites;
s29 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 for works on unoccupied buildings;
ss79-82 of the Environmental Protection Act for abatement of prohibition of a nuisance;
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