| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
24 Apr 2009 : Column 915W—continued
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government upon what percentage of house sales the Valuation Office Agency receives information in order to update valuation lists. [270826]
John Healey: In 2008-09 the Valuation Office Agency had information that triggered a review of the council tax band on approximately 6 per cent. of dwellings for which it was aware of a sale.
Local Government Finance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what the potential maximum reward grant is which each local authority with national indicator 191 targets could receive in 2009-10 if it meets all its targets; [270071]
(2) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson) of 13 March 2009, Official Report, column 767W, on local government finance, what effect failure by a local authority to meet its local national indicator 191 will have on the level of reward grant available to such an authority in 2009-10. [270072]
John Healey: 39 local areas have included a designated target against NI 191 (residual household waste per household) in their Local Area Agreement. Reward for performance against these targets will be payable in 2011-12, from an overall reward fund of £340 million. Entitlement to reward will be based on average performance across all Local Area Agreement targets in an area over the full three-year LAA period. It is not possible, at this stage, to determine the reward grant payable against individual targets in particular years.
My Department has published guidance on the operation of the reward scheme and this is available at:
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson) of 11 March 2009, Official Report, columns 504-5W, on sustainable development, whether local spending reports will be extended to (a) the Highways Agency, (b) the Homes and Communities Agency, (c) the regional development agencies, (d) the Environment Agency and (e) learning and skills councils. [270178]
John Healey: On 22 April 2009 we made arrangements for the production of the first Local Spending Report under section 6 of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007. The arrangements set out full details of the information that will be included in the first report which will be published on 29 April 2009. They will build on the proposals we made in the first phase of a consultation which closed on 3 April 2009.
Local Government: Bank Services
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment (a) her Department and (b) the Audit Commission have made of the medium-term effects on local authorities of the potential losses caused by the collapse of Icelandic banks. [269680]
John Healey: These investments are not lost but at risk. The medium-term consequences and impact will depend on the extent to which money is recovered. The Government continue to work closely with the banks and Icelandic authorities to ensure the fair treatment of UK creditors.
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what capitalisation directions to local authorities have been issued by her Department for pension contributions and redundancy costs; and for what value in each case. [269682]
John Healey: Information on the local authorities that have been issued capitalisation directions for (a) pension contributions and (b) redundancy costs in financial year 2008-09 were published on the Department’s website on 30 January. Capitalisation directions issued for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are also listed on the Department’s website at:
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons (a) equal pay, (b) back pay, (c) pension contributions and (d) redundancy costs (i) can be treated as capital for the purposes of capitalisation directions and (ii) cannot be treated as capital for singular losses caused by the collapse of Icelandic banks. [269683]
John Healey: Capitalisation has macroeconomic implications, and therefore applications from local authorities for capitalisation—including for expenditure in relation to redundancy, pension costs and equal pay back pay—are assessed against strict criteria. Capitalisation is only likely to be permitted where a very strong case can be made, and, as set out in the guidance for 2009-10, the Department considers that there will normally be no case for the capitalisation of potential losses of investments in Icelandic banks or loss of interest in respect of those investments.
Mr. Cameron:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her Department’s policy is on the capitalisation of investment losses incurred by local authorities in Icelandic banks
when the regulations deferring the impact of impairment cease to have effect in 2010; and if she will make a statement. [269684]
John Healey: This money is not lost, but at risk. The regulations allow local authorities to postpone the possible budgetary impact from the potential loss of the investments until 2010-11. This should allow them to be clearer what sums, if any, are still at risk. As set out in our guidance for 2009-10, the Department considers that there will normally be no case for the capitalisation of potential losses of investments or loss of interest in respect of those investments.
Local Government: Manpower
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what records her Department holds of the number of people employed by individual local authorities in the past; and what records her Department holds of the number of people who are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme who are employed by local authorities. [270260]
John Healey: The Department does not hold records of the number of people employed by individual local authorities. The Office for National Statistics collects employment statistics for the public sector including local authorities in England and Wales as part of the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey.
Details of the total number of people that are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme can be found on the Communities and Local Government website at:
Data about the number of members of the scheme that are not employed by local authorities are not held centrally.
Local Government: Petitions
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what procedures will apply to petitions received by local authorities relating to ongoing (a) planning, (b) licensing and (c) gambling applications. [270250]
Mr. Khan: Local authorities currently have their own procedures for dealing with petitions. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill places a duty on principal local authorities to respond to petitions.
The Government aim to keep the scope of the duty as broad as possible, but acknowledged in the Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power White Paper (Cm 7427) that there are some issues, such as planning, which already have extensive statutory public involvement procedures and should be excluded from the duty to respond to petitions. The Government are considering whether the Licensing and Gambling regimes, which also have public involvement specifically built into their processes, should be excluded from these proposals. All exclusions to the duty to respond to petitions would be subject to public consultation.
Local Government: Standards
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the value-for-money scores were of each local authority in each year that the Audit Commission has produced the figures under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime. [270121]
Mr. Khan: This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I have asked the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from Steve Bundred dated 24 April 2009:
Your Parliamentary question on what the value-for-money scores were of each local authority in each year that the Audit Commission has produced the figures under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime has been passed to me to reply.
The Audit Commission has carried out Use of Resources assessments, to support its Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPA), from 2005 to 2008. These assessments have been based on auditors' work and have evaluated how well councils managed and used their resources. The Use of Resources assessment required auditors to reach scored judgements, on a scale of 1 to 4, for five themes:
financial reporting;
financial management;
financial standing;
internal control; and
value for money.
Use of Resources scores under CPA are available on the Commission's website and show the overall scores, as well as scores for each of the themes that comprise the assessment.
In the week commencing 20 April, we will publish our report, Summing up: a review of financial management in local government 2005 - 2008, summarising the results of Use of Resources work under CPA.
A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard.
Mortgages
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent discussions she has had with representatives of (a) HSBC, (b) Nationwide, (c) Santander and (d) Barclays on their mortgage forbearance schemes. [271002]
Margaret Beckett: As part of the programme of work to develop both ‘Homeowners Mortgage Support’ and the ‘Mortgage Rescue Scheme’, CLG has held ongoing discussions with a wide range of lenders on their mortgage forbearance schemes, including the four lenders named above.
Mortgages: Government Assistance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 746-7W, on mortgages: Government assistance, how many households deemed to have met the eligibility criteria have received financial assistance to date; [270179]
(2) how many households have been assisted by each of the local authorities which has fast-tracked the mortgage rescue scheme. [270241]
Margaret Beckett: As part of the monitoring arrangements for the Government Mortgage Rescue Scheme, headline data will be published on a monthly basis on the Department's website starting this month. We will be publishing headline data for January, February and March 2009 on 30 April 2009, as pre-announced on the UK National Statistics Publication Hub, after which local authority breakdowns can be made available. The date of this publication has been delayed from 21 April 2009 owing to unforeseen issues with data quality and validation.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what the costs to her Department have been of establishing the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme; and what estimate she has made of the total cost to her Department of establishing the scheme; [270974]
(2) what recent estimate she has made of the likely cost of the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme for each year to 2016-17; [270989]
(3) how much she expects the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme to cost in each of the next eight years. [271004]
Margaret Beckett: The impact assessment for Homeowners Mortgage Support (HMS) was published on Tuesday 21 April and is available at:
The impact assessment sets out the estimated costs and benefits of HMS. We estimate that the total set-up cost for Government of HMS will be £2 million (present value); the majority of which has already been incurred as a result of establishing HMS for launch. The table sets out the profile of the overall costs to Government in each of the next eight years:
| Profile of HMS c osts to Government (not discounted) | ||||
| £ million | ||||
| Financial year | Govt guarantee cost profile | Total admin ongoing cost excluding VAT | Total Govt set-up cost | Total cost |
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of the mortgage market is represented by the mortgage lenders (a) taking part in the Government's Homeowner Mortgage Support scheme and (b) expected to join the scheme shortly; and what data she uses to calculate such market share. [271003]
Margaret Beckett: Lenders covering more than 80 per cent. of the mortgage market will be providing enhanced support: to their customers through ‘Homeowners Mortgage Support’ by offering the scheme or comparable arrangements.
This includes around 50 per cent. market share who will be taking part in the Government's guarantee backed scheme, of which lenders accounting for 45 per cent. of market share opened the scheme on 21 April. A further 30 per cent. will be offering comparable arrangements to their customers.
The data used to calculate market share are sourced from the ‘CML year book and directory of lenders and associated services, 2008-2009’.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assistance will be provided to homeowners in negative equity by each of the mortgage lenders participating in the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme; and if she will make a statement. [271006]
Margaret Beckett: ‘Homeowners Mortgage Support’ (HMS) is a new scheme which will enable eligible borrowers to reduce their monthly mortgage interest payments to affordable levels for up to two years to help them get back on track with their finances if they suffer a temporary loss of income. Households in negative equity are eligible for support through this scheme.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |