Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 30 April 2009
Communities and Local Government
Aetherius Society
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to Lord Lester of Herne Hill of 30 March 2009, Official Report, House of Lords, column 203WA, on places of religious worship, whether funding has been allocated to the Aetherius Society (a) from her Department and (b) under any programmes that her Department funds. [272241]
Mr. Khan: The Aetherius Society has not applied for or received funding from any programme supported by the Department.
Common Purpose: Finance
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department has given to Common Purpose since the Department's establishment. [272481]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government has not provided any funding to Common Purpose. It has however spent £20,950 on six Common Purpose training programmes since the year 2000.
Council Housing: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many council dwellings have been (a) sold and (b) built in Tamworth constituency since 1997. [272069]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Communities and Local Government (CLG) data related to the sale and new build council homes is based on local authority boundaries rather than constituency boundaries.
The following table shows the number of “Right to Buy” sales only from 1998-99, as there is no disaggregated data prior to this date. Similarly the data for new build council housing is only available from the year 1999-2000.
| Tamworth borough council council house right to buy sales | Tamworth borough council—new build council housing | |
| (1) No data. Source: Communities and Local Government | ||
Departmental Billing
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of its suppliers her Department has paid within 10 days of receipt of invoice in each of the last five months. [272251]
Mr. Khan: The percentage of CLG suppliers paid within 10 days of receipt of invoice in each of the last five months is as follows:
| Percentage paid within 10 days | |
Departmental Travel
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which organisation was the successful bidder for the contract for departmental travel with OGCbuying.solutions project code project_17667; and what the total value of the contract is. [272441]
Mr. Khan: The tenders for this contract are still being evaluated and no award has been made. The Department anticipates an award notice being made by the end of May. No fixed value was quoted in the award but approximate figures on the Department's current annual travel expenditure were quoted as follows:
| £ | |
When the contract is awarded it will be open to the Department's executive agencies and non-departmental bodies.
Empty Property
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes had been empty for more than six months in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency on the latest date for which figures are available. [271348]
Mr. Iain Wright: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Mr. Vara) on 16 December 2008, Official Report, column 586W. Data are not available at a constituency level.
Housing Benefit
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of tenants of (a) registered social landlords and (b) local authorities were in receipt of housing benefit in each of the last three years. [272110]
Mr. Iain Wright: Estimates of the percentages of registered social landlord tenants and local authority tenants in receipt of housing benefit in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 are provided in the following table. These estimates are based on data from the Survey of English Housing.
| Social sector households in receipt of housing benefit, England, 2004-05 to 2006-07 | |||
| Percentage | |||
| Tenure | |||
| Local authority | Registered social landlord( 1) | All social renters | |
| (1) Sometimes referred to as housing associations. Source: Communities and Local Government, Survey of English Housing | |||
Housing Market
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate has been made of the net cost to the public purse of the changes to the measures to support the housing market announced in the Budget 2009 in each of the next three years. [271372]
Mr. Iain Wright: The measures to support the housing market include a £605 million funding package for house building (including a housing environmental package), £90 million to extend the stamp duty land tax holiday, £235 million to help those facing difficulties with their mortgage payments, and £120 million extra support for the devolved administrations. The costs and receipts (where applicable), over each of the next three years, are reported in tables 1 and 2. The differences between Table 1 and Table 2 represent the net cost to the public purse.
Receipts back to the Government will accrue from elements of the stalled sites package, specifically from the Equity, Gap and Infrastructure and Homebuy Direct measures:
| Table 2: Budget 2009 housing market measure receipts (£ million) | |
| Stalled sites | |
Housing: Low Incomes
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many affordable homes have been built in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997. [271258]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information on affordable housing completions is collected by the East of England Regional Assembly using returns from local authorities. It is available by borough/district council for the years since 2001 only.
The following table sets out the numbers of affordable housing completions and this amount as a percentage of total housing completions.
| Hemel Hempstead (Dacorum Borough) | |||
| Affordable housing completions (net) | Total housing completions (net) | Affordable housing as a percentage of total completions | |
| Note: The figure for affordable housing completions in 2005/06 (-29) includes demolition of council affordable housing stock. | |||
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