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30 Jun 2009 : Column 200W—continued
Recreation Spaces
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 11 May 2009, Official Report, column 517W, on recreation spaces, whether his Department’s green spaces database holds information on (a) public gardens and (b) gardens of residential properties. [283022]
Mr. Ian Austin: The green spaces database holds:
Information on public gardens from the English Heritage “Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest”. This can include other designated landscapes such as town squares.
Residential gardens information from the Generalised Land Use Database (2005) categorised ‘Gardens’. This is based on publicly available Ordnance Survey data.
Regional Planning and Development: East of England
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what strategic environmental assessments were produced for (a) the East of England Regional Spatial Strategy and (b) the South East Regional Spatial Strategy. [282872]
Mr. Ian Austin: Both the Regional Spatial Strategies for the South East and East of England Regions underwent sustainability appraisals as required by Section 5(4) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. The sustainability appraisal incorporates the requirements of the European Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Regional Planning and Development: South East
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the South East Regional Spatial Strategy will next be reviewed. [282871]
Mr. Malik: As the South East England Regional Spatial Strategy was published recently, the focus now is on implementing it. However, reviews of the policies in the regional spatial strategy on minerals and Gypsies, Travellers and travelling showpeople are under way. The regional planning body will need to consider when to do a full review against the backdrop of emerging legislation for integrated regional strategies. My officials will discuss with them a project plan for the review over the coming months.
Right to Buy Scheme
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what purposes revenue collected from Right to Buy receipts in each of the last three years has been allocated. [282628]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 2 June 2009, Official Report, columns 457-58W.
The housing receipts (including Right to Buy) surrendered to the Exchequer are not hypothecated to specific policy areas but, together with other resources, contribute towards the overall fiscal package within which departmental public expenditure programmes are agreed as part of the spending review process.
Receipts retained by Communities and Local Government (CLG) are used to support its housing and planning capital programme expenditure. The following table sets out the elements of CLG housing capital programme in the last three years, and the housing receipts (including Right to Buy) received by CLG.
Social Rented Housing: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many representations his Department has received from (a) individuals and (b) social housing tenants in (i) Essex and (ii) Castle Point on (A) a further stock transfer ballot and (B) a transfer of housing stock to registered social landlords; and how many such representations were in favour of a housing stock transfer to registered social landlords. [280454]
Mr. Ian Austin: During the last five years there have been two housing stock transfers to registered social landlords in Essex, at Braintree and Rochford. The Department received five representations from social housing tenants against the housing stock transfer proposals in Braintree. The Department did not receive any representations in respect of the Rochford housing stock transfer.
The Department received four representations in 2008 from social housing tenants in Castle Point in relation to the council's proposed housing stock transfer. The representations did not comment on a further stock transfer ballot. None of the representations received were in favour of housing transfer stock.
Social Rented Housing: Islington
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many properties he expects to be (a) completed and (b) purchased for social rent in the London Borough of Islington in (i) 2009-10 and (ii) each of the next four years. [283092]
Mr. Ian Austin: The forecast completions for social rented homes approved to date for the National Affordable Housing Programme in Islington are:
| Forecast completions | |
Information is not available on projections of social rented properties to be purchased in Islington.
Social Rented Housing: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) local authority and (b) housing association homes in Tamworth met the decent homes standard in each of the last five years. [282759]
Mr. Ian Austin: The information requested is provided in the following table.
| Social sector non-decent dwellings in Tamworth | ||||
| Local authority | RSL | |||
| As at 1 April each year | Non-decent | All stock | Non-decent | All stock |
| Sources: 1. Annual returns, from all LAs that own social housing stock, to Communities and Local Government. 2. Annual return from registered social landlords as at 31 March each year. RSR stock figures include owned general needs, supported housing and housing for older people, and non-decent stock is reported on this basis. | ||||
Stop Notices: Travelling People
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance his Department has issued on whether stop notices can be used against temporary dwellings erected by Travellers which are not caravans. [282482]
Mr. Malik: Guidance on the use of stop notices is contained in Annex 3 of “ODPM Circular 10/97: Enforcing planning control: legislative provisions and procedural requirements”. The circular states that a stop notice may be used to prohibit the use of land as a site for a caravan occupied by any person as his or her own main residence. A stop notice cannot prohibit the use of any building as a dwelling house. The Department has not issued guidance on whether stop notices can be used against temporary dwellings.
Temporary Accommodation: Cleveland
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households were living in temporary accommodation in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency at the latest date for which figures are available. [282903]
Mr. Ian Austin: Information about English local housing authorities’ actions under the homelessness legislation (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected at local authority level, and published by the Department in the quarterly Statistical Release on Statutory Homelessness (available both in the Library and via the CLG website):
The quarterly release includes a supplementary table showing key information at local authority level. The latest temporary accommodation figures reported by all local authorities (including Middlesbrough), as at 31 March 2009, can be found in column X of this table:
Urban Areas
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research his Department has evaluated on the social effects on local areas of prosperous town centres. [282637]
Mr. Ian Austin: The main sources of research, which my Department has considered during the course of its work on town centres, include:
“Vital and Viable Town Centres: Meeting the Challenge”—URBED, 2004, HMSO;
“Smaller Towns Report: Delivering retail-led renaissance in towns and smaller cities”—UCL, 2004, BCSC;
“The Role and Vitality of Secondary Shopping”—CBRE, 2004, The National Retail Planning Forum (sponsored by BCSC Education Trust, Marks & Spencer and the ODPM);
“Policy Evaluation of the Effectiveness of PPG6”—CBRE, January 2004, ODPM;
“The Lyons Inquiry into Local Government, Place-shaping: a shared ambition for the future of local government, Final Report”—Sir Michael Lyons, March 2007;
“A Balance of Trade”, Report of the Commission on Retail Conservation to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, March 2007;
“Clone Town Britain, the loss of identity on the nation’s high streets”—New Economics Foundation, September 2004;
“Ghost Town Britain”—New Economics Foundation, 2005;
“High Street Britain 2015”—House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group, 2006;
“Mixed Use Development: Practice and Potential”—DTLR, March 2002, HMSO;
“Managing Urban Spaces in Town Centres—Good Practice Guide”, Chesterton for the Association of Town Centre Management (sponsored by DOE, Scottish Enterprise, Boots the Chemists, Marks & Spencer).
We have also evaluated and taken account of similar work produced by stakeholders such as individual retailers, Friends of the Earth, Accessible Retail and the Association of Convenience Stores.
Treasury
Council Tax: Valuation Office Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to implement the recommendation of the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) recent framework review of a statutory information gateway between the VOA and billing authorities for council tax valuations. [282393]
Mr. Timms: The Government are considering the recommendation for a statutory information gateway.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) rules and (b) procedures apply to (i) the sale by Departments of property they own and (ii) the allocation of any proceeds from the sale. [282985]
Mr. Byrne
[holding answer 29 June 2009]: All central Government Departments were required to publish an Asset Management Strategy (AMS) around the time of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. Departmental capital expenditure limits are agreed at spending reviews and set net of the capital income that Departments are able to retain in capital budgets, as set out in AMSs. To
incentivise efficiency in asset management, Departments are able to retain up to 20 per cent. more than the forecast capital income to fund further investment. Any further retention of income is considered on a case-by-case basis by the Treasury, with the aim of encouraging participation in wider market activities and disposal of surplus assets.
These arrangements are set out in the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance issued annually by the Treasury, which is available at:
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