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7 July 2009 : Column 707W—continued
Housing Revenue Accounts
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what obligations local authorities will have in relation to housing capital receipts under changes to the Housing Revenue Account system proposed by his Department. [284237]
Mr. Ian Austin [holding answer 3 July 2009]: The Minister for Housing announced in the House on 30 June 2009, Official Report, column 7WS that he intended to publish a consultation document before the summer recess. This document will set out proposals to end the pooling of all housing capital receipts.
Housing: Low Incomes
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many keyworkers in each category have purchased a home under each of the HomeBuy schemes to date; and if he will make a statement. [283429]
John Healey: The following table sets out the number of key workers in each category recorded as having purchased a home under the relevant homebuy schemes between April 2006 and March 2009.
| Key worker category | New build homebuy | Open market homebuy |
| Source: The Homes and Communities Agency's Information Management System. | ||
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many (a) private developers and (b) registered social landlords made applications for HomeBuy Direct funding during the most recent round of bidding; [283433]
(2) pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2009, Official Report, column 883W, on housing: construction, what timetable has been set for publication of information on the bids received by the Homes and Communities Agency for funding under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme; [283463]
(3) pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2009, Official Report, column 883W, on housing: construction, how many bidders for funding under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme have applied for (a) equity and (b) loan investment support; [284116]
(4) pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2009, Official Report, column 883W, on housing: construction, how many of the bids received for funding under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme were from (a) arms length management organisations, (b) registered social landlords and (c) private sector developers; [284118]
(5) how many applications for support under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme have been received from organisations operating in each region; how many projects such bids relate to; and how much funding organisations in each region have bid for to date under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme; [284120]
(6) what the (a) average and (b) total monetary value of grants bid for under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme was. [284121]
John Healey: Information on the bids received by the HCA for funding under the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme will be published on the HCA website at the end of July.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the most recent round of bidding for HomeBuy Direct funding took place; and over what period he expects the next such round to take place. [283434]
John Healey: The Kickstart Housing Development Programme includes an element of HomeBuy Direct funding. The bidding round was launched on 8 May 2009 and closed on 8 June 2009.
The Kickstart Housing Development Programme has been extended as announced in the Housing Pledge—part of Building Britain’s Future and as a result there will be a further bidding round closing in autumn 2009. Details will be published shortly on the HCA website at:
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average (a) monetary value and (b) percentage of equity purchased under the Social HomeBuy scheme has been to date. [283435]
Mr. Ian Austin: On the question about average monetary value, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 11 June 2009, Official Report, columns 994-95W.
The average percentage of equity purchased under the social homebuy scheme is 85 per cent. for 2006-07, 89 per cent. for 2007-08 and 84 per cent. for 2008-09.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has spent on the HomeBuy Direct scheme to date. [283440]
John Healey: As at the end of June the Department had spent £4,734,698 on HomeBuy Direct.
Housing: Repossession Orders
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of (a) studio apartments, (b) one-bedroom, (c) two-bedroom and (d) three or more bedroomed properties to have been repossessed in each of the last five years. [283439]
Mr. Ian Austin:
There are two independent sources of data on actual numbers of mortgage possessions: The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the Financial
Services Authority (FSA). However neither source has data on the number of bedrooms of the property being repossessed.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders latest press release on repossessions is on their website at:
The Financial Services Authority data are available on their website at:
Influenza
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the roles are of (a) local and (b) regional resilience forums in preparations for an influenza pandemic. [283843]
Gillian Merron: I have been asked to reply.
Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) are the principal mechanism for the coordination of multi-agency planning at local level. Membership includes all Category 1 responders (such as emergency services, local authorities and health bodies) which are subject to a range of civil protection duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. As such, LRFs are responsible for planning for the multi-agency management of an influenza pandemic at local level, working closely with primary care trusts.
Regional Resilience Forums (RRFs) allow key responders to plan together and improve the coordination and flow of information across and between regions and the centre. In preparation for wide-scale civil emergencies such as an influenza pandemic, RRFs would work closely with strategic health authorities to provide an information channel between central Government planning and local tiers, identify issues that cannot be resolved locally and provide appropriate feedback.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which public bodies are responsible for overseeing the preparations made by local authorities for an influenza pandemic. [283884]
Gillian Merron: I have been asked to reply.
The Audit Commission is responsible for monitoring the performance of local authorities. This includes ensuring that they meet their statutory requirements of which preparing for emergencies is one. (The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004, requires local authorities to assess the risk of emergencies occurring and to maintain plans for managing these risks.)
The Audit Commission works with partner inspectorates (i.e. HM Inspectorate for Constabularies, the Care Quality Inspectorate, HM Inspectorate of Prisons; HM Inspectorate of Probation and Ofsted) to assess the performance of local services in England through the Comprehensive Area Assessment. For those organisations that are inspected both sector specific and multi-agency performance is assessed. This includes assessment against National Indicator 37, which assesses how aware the general public are of what to do in the event of an emergency.
The CCA Implementation team, within the Civil Contingencies Secretariat at the Cabinet Office, is responsible for running a CCA performance development
and compliance work stream. An ‘Expectation and Indicators of Good Practice Set for Category 1 and 2 Responders’ has been published which sets out what is expected of those responsible for preparing for emergencies (including local authorities) and outlines mandatory requirements. This can be accessed through the United Kingdom resilience pages of the Cabinet Office website at:
Landlords: Registration
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the annual fee to be charged in respect of the proposed national registration scheme for landlords; and what assessment he has made of the likely effect of that fee on the levels of rent charged by landlords. [284001]
Mr. Ian Austin: Work on our proposals is at too early a stage for precise estimates to be made.
Local Government: Billing
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government by what means his Department intends to measure whether local authorities are meeting guidelines for the payment of invoices within 10 days. [283587]
Ms Rosie Winterton: In October 2008 the Prime Minister announced that central Government Departments will pay their suppliers as soon as possible and within 10 days. This commitment has also attracted support from the wider public sector. The Government are now working with the Regional Economic Fora (which provide a strategic approach to coordinating economic policies across Government in the regions, are made up of key regional bodies and are all either chaired or co-chaired by regional Ministers) to identify payment best practice across local authorities and the NHS and encourage these areas to commit to the prompt payment code.
Local government has a strong track record of paying suppliers on time, with Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) data from 2007-08 showing that 95 per cent. of undisputed invoices were paid on time by local authorities. A Local Government Association survey in January 2009 showed that 32 per cent. of local authorities were making payments in 10 days or less, and a further 20 per cent. within 20 days.
BVPI's have now been replaced by the single national indicator set which are outcome-based measurements of performance. The Government have committed to only performance managing local authorities within these agreed indicators and targets and as the 10-day payment policy for local authorities is not in the national indicator set, we will not be asking local authorities to report their performance. Instead, the focus on businesses in the national indicator set is on business growth and sustainability. In that context we know anecdotally, and through other surveys, that local authorities are targeting those businesses in most in need of prompt payment and are working on a range of wider measures to increase cash flow, simplify and increase the transparency and take up of public procurement opportunities particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises.
Non-Domestic Rates: Ports
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations his Department has received on the effect of the new system of retrospective business rates on companies within ports. [284350]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This Department has received a number of written representations directly from some port businesses, and also from some constituency MPs where there is a port.
Non-domestic Rates: Wind Power
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the rateable value per megawatt of generation capacity of (a) on-shore and (b) off-shore wind farms (i) is in 2009-10 and (ii) is expected to be in 2010-11. [283634]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The rateable value for onshore wind farms in the 2005 rating lists ranges between £5,000 and £12,500 rateable value per megawatt of generation capacity.
Individual draft rateable values for the 2010 rating lists will be published for consultation by the Valuation Office Agency at the end of September 2009.
Offshore wind farms located beyond mean low water mark are not rateable.
Planning: Renewable Energy
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what categories of on-shore energy projects will have their planning application dealt with by (a) local authorities, (b) the Marine Management Organisation and (c) the Infrastructure Planning Commission. [283631]
John Healey: The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) will deal with projects which meet the thresholds in Part 3 of the Planning Act 2008, once these are commenced. Where there is relevant national policy statement, the IPC will examine and determine the application; where no relevant national policy statement is in place, the IPC will examine the application and then report with recommendations to the relevant Secretary of State. On-shore projects falling below those thresholds will in most cases require planning permission from the relevant local planning authority.
We would not normally expect an application for a marine licence to be made to the Marine Management Organisation in relation to on-shore projects.
Private Rented Housing: Pendle
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding his Department plans to provide to (a) Pendle Borough Council and (b) other housing providers in Pendle to improve standards of private sector housing in 2009-10. [284339]
Mr. Ian Austin:
Pendle borough council was allocated £1,587,000 (one million, five hundred and eighty seven
thousand pounds) in 2009-10 to improve private sector housing. Allocations are paid to local authorities through the regional housing pot as un-ring fenced capital grants based on recommendations made by the regional housing boards.
Public Bodies: Travelling People
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance his Department has issued to public bodies on allocation of services to Travellers. [283782]
Mr. Malik: The Department has not issued any guidance to public bodies on the allocation of services to Travellers.
Public Lavatories: Disabled
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received from groups representing disabled people on the adequacy of the level of provision by local authorities of public conveniences with disabled access. [284433]
Mr. Malik: The noble Lady, Baroness Andrews met representatives of the Changing Places Consortium on 13 January 2009 to discuss their campaign to promote specially equipped toilets for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Local authority provision of such toilets was discussed. The updated British Standard ‘BS8300 Design of Buildings and their approaches to meet the need of disabled people—Code of Practice’, was published in March 2009, which includes expanded guidance on the design and provision of Changing Places facilities.
In the last six months, this Department has received letters from members of the public about various aspects of local authority public toilet provision, but none from groups representing the interests of disabled people.
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