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25 Nov 2008 : Column 1280W—continued
Revenue Support Grant
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what account her Department takes of levels of (a) elderly and (b) transient populations of seaside towns when deciding upon the formula for the revenue support grant. [238295]
John Healey: Formula Grant is made up from Revenue Support Grant, redistributed Business Rates and principal formula Police Grant and distributed to local authorities in England. The distribution of Formula Grant takes into account the relative need to provide services in an area and the relative ability of an area to raise council tax locally, relative to all other authorities providing the same service. It also contains a central allocation and a floor damping mechanism.
There are relative needs formulae (RNF) for each of the main service areas that are provided by authorities—children’s services, adults’ personal social services, highways maintenance, police, fire and rescue, environmental, protective and cultural services, and capital finance. Except for highways maintenance and capital finance, the resident population (measured by the Office for National Statistics’s sub-national population projections) are the main driver of the formula. In all formulae, there are additional elements to take into account additional factors related to need.
There are two RNFs within Adults’ personal social services to reflect services for Younger Adults and Older People. The main factor in the Older People’s Personal Social Services is the population of people aged 65 and over who are residents in households or are local authority supported residents in permanent care homes. Additional factors to reflect age, deprivation, low income and sparsity are also included in the RNF.
There is no explicit measure of transient population within the formula grant distribution system.
Second Homes
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what percentage of homes in each county in England are registered as second homes. [239013]
Mr. Iain Wright: Details of the number of properties registered as second homes for council tax purposes and the percentage this is of the total number of homes in each county in England in October 2007 are given in the following table.
| Second Homes | Total number of dwellings | Second homes as percentage of total dwellings | |
The data are from a snapshot taken each year and are as recorded, by each local authority, in council tax base returns submitted annually.
Shared Ownership Schemes
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) people and (b) key workers have purchased a property through each of the HomeBuy and shared ownership schemes in each region of the country in each year since the schemes were introduced. [234157]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following tables 1, 2 and 3 set out the homes provided through the Housing Corporation's Affordable Housing Programme, including through the Starter Home Initiative, from 1999-2000 to 2007-08 by region and by shared ownership and HomeBuy scheme.
Tables 4 and 5 show how many of the homes in tables 1, 2 and 3 were provided specifically for key workers through these schemes, although some key workers may have benefited from the general shared ownership and HomeBuy products.
Figures have been provided from 1999-2000 as this was the start of the first open market Homebuy scheme. Social HomeBuy was introduced in 2006-07.
| Table 1: Shared Ownership/New Build HomeBuy | ||||||||||
| London | South-east | South-west | East midlands | Eastern | West midlands | Yorkshire and Humberside | North-east | North-west | Grand total | |
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