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16 July 2009 : Column 651W—continued
Local Government Finance
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans he has to allow councils to keep (a) receipts from Right to Buy sales and (b) income from rents from council housing. [286565]
Mr. Ian Austin: We announced in June that councils can keep capital receipts and rent income from any newly built council homes supported by Social housing grant or funded with the authorities' own resources. In addition we are currently considering whether there are other types of council housing on which capital receipts and rents should be retained.
My right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing's statement on 30 June 2009 also announced our intention to reform the council housing finance subsidy system and that we will be consulting on our proposals before the summer recess. This consultation will include a proposal to allow councils to keep all the capital receipts from right to buy, and income from rents.
Local Government Finance: York
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much general revenue funding has been allocated to City of York unitary authority in each year since 1996-97. [285705]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The following table shows the increases for the City of York in formula grant for each year from 1998-99 onwards on a like-for-like basis, i.e. after adjusting for changes in function and funding.
| Prior years adjusted Formula Grant2 (£ million) | Current year's Formula Grant (£ million) | Change (£ million) | Change (percentage) | |
| (1 )The prior year's formula grant is adjusted for changes in function and funding to enable a like-for-like comparison. (2) Formula Grant comprises Revenue Support Grant, redistributed business rates, principal formula Police Grant, SSA Reduction Grant (SSA Review), SSA Reduction Grant (Police Funding Review) and Central Support Protection Grant where appropriate. (3) Prior to 2006-07 support for schools was paid through formula grant. In 2006-07 funding for schools transferred to the Dedicated Schools Grant. | ||||
The amount of formula grant an authority receives each year is not directly comparable due to changes in funding and functions. For example, prior to 2006-07 funding for schools was included within formula grant; from 2006-07 onwards funding for schools was provided by the Dedicated Schools Grant. For this reason, we therefore adjust the prior year's formula grant, for comparison purposes only, so that it reflects the notional amount of formula grant an authority would have received in that year had we been financing the same services as in the current year.
The Department only holds data on year-on-year changes in formula grant on a like-for-like basis from 1997-98. This is because it only became necessary to make these calculations when guarantees were introduced that formula grant would not go down from one year to the next.
Planning Permission
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he plans to grant planning powers to (a) regional development agencies, (b) local authority leaders' boards and (c) economic prosperity boards. [286516]
Mr. Ian Austin: Under the terms of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill, Government are to give joint responsibility for a regional strategy to (a) the regional development agencies and (b) local authorities' leaders' boards in each English region outside of London. These bodies will therefore have joint responsibility for plan-making at regional level.
It is up to local authorities to set out the functions that they wish to pass to an EPB across their area. They may decide that their EPB should play a part in spatial planning-most likely through co-operation in the
production of local development frameworks. It is very unlikely that local authorities would propose ceding the power to make particular planning decisions to an EPB and also unlikely that the Secretary of State would agree to such an arrangement, as the Government wish the link between planning decisions and direct local democratic accountability to be maintained.
Regional Planning and Development
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding his Department has allocated to regional empowerment partnerships in the last three years. [286578]
Mr. Malik: The Community Development Foundation received £1,736,990 in 2007-08 and £1,645,000 in 2008-09 from the Department for Communities and Local Government to fund the activities of nine independent regional empowerment partnerships. For the current year 2009-10, the Community Development Foundation has been allocated £1,715,000 to continue this support.
Registered Social Landlords
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many injunctions have been (a) sought and (b) obtained under section 13 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 in each local authority area in each of the last three years; [280262]
(2) how many injunctions have been (a) sought and (b) obtained under section 153A of the Housing Act 1996 by landlords in each local authority area in each of the last three years; [280263]
(3) how many injunctions have been (a) sought and (b) obtained under section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972 by each local authority in each of the last three years. [280264]
Mr. Ian Austin: Registered social landlords owning and/or managing 1,000 or more units/bed spaces obtained the following number of injunctions under Section 153 A of the Housing Act 1996, inserted by section 13 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, between April 2005 and March 2008:
| Number | |
Data are not yet available for 2008-09 and the data collected cannot be broken down by local authority area. Data are not available for smaller registered social landlords. Data are not yet available on injunctions obtained by local authority landlords under section 153 A of the Housing Act 1996 nor by local authorities under section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972.
No data are available on injunctions sought but not obtained.
Rents: Private Sector
Sarah Teather:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average private sector rent was in each region of England in
(a) 2001-02, (b) 2002-03, (c) 2003-04, (d) 2004-05, (e) 2005-06, (f) 2006-07, (g) 2007-08 and (h) 2008-09. [287689]
Mr. Ian Austin: Estimates of the mean rent for private tenancies by region for the period 1995-96 and 1996-97 to 2006-07 and 2007-08 are available in Housing Statistics live table 734
These estimates are based on data from the Survey of English Housing.
Shared Ownership Schemes
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many shared ownership purchases were made in (a) London and (b) England by people registered on housing waiting lists in each year since 2000; and what proportion of all such sales this represented in each such year. [284718]
Mr. Ian Austin: The following table shows the number of shared ownership completions made in London and England by people on housing waiting lists, and as a percentage of total shared ownership sales.
| London | England | |||
| Number of sales | Percentage of sales | Number of sales | Percentage of sales | |
| Source: CORE (Continuous Recording) returns to the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) from Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) | ||||
CORE data only records data from RSLs with at least 250 units or bed spaces, so the figures above may be underestimates if not all RSLs are included. Also not all CORE data is compulsory for RSLs to complete, and details on whether sales were made to people on LA waiting lists was missing in approximately 20 per cent. of returns.
Details on whether shared ownership sales were made to people on LA waiting lists was removed from the CORE form in 2007-08, so the figures are only available up to 2006-07.
Social Housing Grant: Greater London
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much social housing grant was (a) allocated to and (b) bid for by each London local authority in each allocation round since 2000. [284716]
Mr. Ian Austin:
Local authorities have been able to apply for social housing grant since 2004, but to date none has. In May we invited local authorities to bid for a share of the £100 million announced in the Budget
(with a later addition of up to £250 million) for local authorities to deliver new social housing. The first bids are expected shortly.
Tony Clements
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what post Mr. Tony Clements holds in his Department; and on what date he was appointed. [286645]
Mr. Malik: Tony Clements is a civil servant, working as a policy adviser in the Strategy and Performance Directorate. He was appointed on 29 June 2009.
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