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25 Nov 2008 : Column 1284W—continued
| Table 5: Open Market HomeBuy | ||||||||||
| London | South-east | South-west | East midlands | Eastern | West midlands | Yorkshire and Humberside | North-east | North-west | Grand total | |
Shelter: Eco-Towns
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how much financial support her Department provided to Shelter for the production of documents concerning eco-towns; and if she will make a statement; [232764]
(2) what support, other than financial, her Department provided to Shelter for the production of documents concerning eco-towns; what information her Department provided to Shelter for the production of the documents; how many members of her Department were involved in the production of the documents; and if she will make a statement; [232765]
(3) who initiated the project for Shelter to produce a range of documents relating to each proposed eco-town with funding from her Department; when the project was initiated; and if she will make a statement. [232766]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Shelter publications do not promote eco-town locations, but provide information about the housing situation in and around the 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 the Department.
Shelter put their proposal to the Department about producing publications to provide factual information to local people about the housing situation in and around potential eco-town locations on 29 May 2008. The Department agreed to provide funding to Shelter to assist them with this initiative on 5 June 2008. The Department has committed £166,000 + VAT to this project.
Support was also provided from a number of officials from the Department to give advice on statistics and sources for statistical information related to housing and to cross-check the factual accuracy of the publications.
Sleeping Rough
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what progress is being made on the street needs audit of rough sleeper counts. [239437]
Mr. Iain Wright: Under the new rough sleeping strategy ‘No One Left Out’ we intend to develop a ‘Street Needs Audit’ in 2009 to supplement rough sleeper counts to ensure that counts are not just an opportunity to identify need but more importantly to do something about it.
The Street Needs Audit will gather more information about people found on counts, including whether there is an active action plan in place for the person and the lead agency that is taking responsibility.
We will consult on these changes.
Tenants Rights: Duchy of Cornwall
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether residents in domestic properties owned by the Duchy of Cornwall have (a) rights of leasehold extension or enfranchisement and (b) a right to buy their properties. [239029]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Duchy of Cornwall has voluntarily undertaken to give its tenants rights equivalent to those under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 and the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 subject to certain exceptions. The exceptions include properties that are in, or intimately connected with, the curtilage of Historic Royal Parks and Palaces or where properties or the areas in which they are situated have a long historic or particular association with the Crown, and those where there are particular security considerations.
The right to buy available to social tenants under the Housing Act 1985 does not extend to tenants of the Duchy of Cornwall.
Travelling People
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average cost to a local authority was of providing (a) an authorised site and (b) an authorised pitch for Gypsies and Travellers in each of the last three years. [237752]
Mr. Iain Wright: Based on the value of successful bids for Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant, the average cost of providing a pitch on a new local authority site was £57,154 in 2005-06, £93,692 in 2006-07, and £81,615 in 2007-08. This cost will be affected by the location of the site—often sites are on brownfield land which requires remediation, or are some distance from essential utilities—and whether land needs to be purchased. The cost of a new site will also vary according to the number of pitches it provides.
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many Gypsies and Travellers there were in England in (a) 1988, (b) 1998 and (c) 2008. [237788]
Mr. Iain Wright: We do not collect information on the number of Gypsies and Travellers in England. The bi-annual count of Gypsy and Traveller caravans provides information on the number of Gypsy and Traveller caravans in England. Copies are available in the Libraries of both Houses and on the Communities and Local Government website at
The number of caravans counted was as follows:
| Number of caravans | |
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the occupancy rate was for publicly-owned authorised sites for Gypsies and Travellers in (a) Essex, (b) Suffolk, (c) Norfolk, (d) Kent, (e) Hertfordshire, (f) Berkshire, (g) Cambridgeshire and (h) Greater London in each of the last three years. [237789]
Mr. Iain Wright: The occupancy rate recorded for residential pitches on authorised local authority sites was as follows:
| Percentage | |||
| January 2008 | January 2007 | January 2006 | |
Travelling People: Caravan Sites
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many compulsory purchase orders to acquire land for the purpose of building Gypsy and Traveller sites have been rejected by her Department in the last 10 years; [239407]
(2) how many times her Department has rejected the recommendation of planning inspectors on compulsory purchase orders to acquire land for Gypsy and Traveller sites in the last 10 years; [239409]
(3) how many times planning inspectors have recommended against proceeding with a compulsory purchase order to acquire land for Gypsy and Traveller sites in the last 10 years. [239410]
Mr. Iain Wright: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many compulsory purchase orders to acquire land for Gypsy and Traveller sites have been made in the last 10 years. [239408]
Mr. Iain Wright: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 24 November 2008, Official Report, PQ 237786.
Travelling People: Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment her Department has made of the needs of transient populations in seaside towns. [238422]
John Healey: The Department’s report “England’s Seaside Towns—A Benchmarking Study” published in early November contains findings on migrant workers, who form part of transient populations, in England’s 37 principal seaside resorts. The report identifies that most of the districts including seaside towns, have attracted fewer migrant workers, in relation to their population, than the English average. The report can be found at:
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