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19 Oct 2009 : Column 1302W—continued
As of this year, there has been one media monitoring contract with TNS Media Monitoring Services which covers the whole network.
| Media monitoring providers for Government offices in the last three years | ||
| Government office | Year | Provider |
| (1) In 2008-09 the network contracted media monitoring services on behalf of five Government offices. | ||
Government Offices Regional Coordination Unit
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the budget of the Government Offices Regional Coordination Unit is for 2009-10; how many staff it employs; and what its function is. [292819]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Regional Coordination Unit ceased to exist on 30 April 2009. A new structure, the Government Office Network Centre and Services, came into being on 1 May 2009.
The Government Office Network Centre and Services provides the Secretariat for the Network Governance Committees, the Council of Regional Ministers provides support for Regional Ministers and the Government's work with regional grand and select committees. It also leads the Network strategy and communications arrangements.
The running cost budget for Regional Coordination Unit and Government Office Network Centre and Services for 2009-10 is £5.8 million.
As at 1 October 2009, there are 28.6 full-time equivalent staff working for Government Office Network Centre and Services GONCS. 73.1 full-time equivalent staff have transferred to Department of Communities and Local Government line management.
Home Information Packs
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost to the public purse has been of (a) marketing, (b) public relations, (c) advertising and (d) communications expenditure in relation to home information packs to date. [292632]
John Healey: For details of all communications expenditure on home information packs prior to the financial year 2008-09, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. friend the Member for Derby, South (Margaret Beckett) on 19 March 2009, Official Report, column 1291W, to the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy). For details of all communications expenditure on home information packs in 2008-09, I refer the hon. Member to the information on the Department's website at:
published at the time of the Department's 2008-09 Annual Report.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what accreditation schemes for (a) home information packs and (b) home condition reports have been notified to his Department. [292740]
John Healey: The information is as follows:
(a) There are no accreditation schemes for home information packs.
(b) Home condition reports (HCRs) are produced by Home Inspectors certified by the following Government approved certification schemes:
BRE (Buildings Research Establishment) Training and Accreditation
RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Accreditation and Certification
SAVA (Surveyors and Valuers Accreditation Ltd.) Certification Scheme.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has spent on the home information pack programme since its inception. [292815]
John Healey: I refer to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, South (Margaret Beckett) to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) on February 2008, Official Report, column 1313W. Since then an additional £4,543,432 has been spent on Home Information Packs up to the end of the 2008-09 financial year.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many of the home condition reports on the Home Condition Register received subsidy in whole or in part from public initiatives to encourage the take-up of home condition reports. [293109]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, South (Margaret Beckett) to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) on 9 February 2009, Official Report, column 1693W.
Homes and Communities Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what role the Homes and Communities Agency has in the regional planning process. [292616]
John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) deploys £5 billion of public investment in housing and regeneration and should therefore be a key participant in the regional planning process.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what framework agreements for the (a) Homes and Communities Agency and (b) Tenants Services Authority are in the process of establishing. [292620]
John Healey: The framework document for the Homes and Communities Agency is available to view on their website at:
The framework document for the Tenant Services Authority is available to view on their website at:
The document was also placed (DEP2009-2275) in the Library of the House on 26 August 2009.
Homes and Communities Agency: Finance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Homes and Communities Agency will spend on property and regeneration in each of the next three years; and how much English Partnerships and associated bodies which were incorporated into the Agency spent on such matters, in each of the last three years. [292553]
John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency's (HCA) planned (gross) expenditure on its property and regeneration programme for 2009-10 and 2010-11 is set out in its corporate plan 2009-11, which has been published on its website at:
The figures provided in the plan reflect Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budgets. Spending plans for 2011-12 fall into the next spending round period and have yet to be determined.
The HCA was formed from the following predecessor bodies: English Partnerships, the investment arm of the Housing Corporation, and the Academy for Sustainable Communities. The HCA also took over delivery of a number of this Department's programmes, such as Housing Market Renewal, the Growth Areas and the Thames Gateway, which have links with regeneration and housing. The HCA's current 'property and regeneration' spending programme is the successor to the former EP spending programme alone.
The HCA's published corporate plan provides a DEL spend figure for 2008-09 on 'property and regeneration' for the full 12 month period (on a merger accounting basis). Hence this figure includes within it spend during the first eight months of 2008-09 when the programme was delivered by English Partnerships (EP) prior to the launch of the HCA on 1 December 2008. Final audited spend out-turn for EP on a net DEL basis for 2007-08 and 2006-07 was reported in its published annual accounts available on its website at:
in the financial key performance indicators section (page 63 for 2007-08, and page 61 for 2006-07).
Housing
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 20 July 2009, Official Report, column 813W, on housing, what information his Department holds on the number of newspapers which printed the article by the Minister for Housing and Planning. [292983]
John Healey: An article I wrote appeared in a number of local and regional newspapers. The article was made available to newspapers through The Central Office of Information. CLG does not hold a central record of the total number of newspapers the article appeared in.
Housing Associations: Pay
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what records the Homes and Communities Agency holds of levels of remuneration awarded to members of housing association boards. [293005]
John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) does not hold records of levels of remuneration awarded to members of housing association boards.
Housing: Databases
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent discussions his Department has had with the Valuation Office Agency on access by the agency to access property data held on the (a) Home Condition Report and (b) Energy Performance Certificates registers. [292877]
John Healey: We have no record of any such representation by the Valuation Office Agency.
Housing: Energy
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what discussions he has had with the housing and property industry on the extent to which energy performance is reflected in the value of a property. [292551]
John Healey:
The Department for Communities and Local Government is working with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and other stakeholders on a project to explore the extent to which energy performance
is reflected in the value of a property and the effect on the market price of homes as a result of the installation of different energy efficiency and renewable heat and energy technologies.
This work is due to report at the end of the year.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his Department's most recent estimate is of the level of average annual carbon dioxide emissions for a domestic dwelling from heat loss. [292623]
Joan Ruddock: I have been asked to reply.
The latest estimate of average CO2 emissions for a domestic dwelling due to energy use for heating the rooms is around two tonnes per year. This is based on data published in 2008 by the Buildings Research Establishment.
Household energy consumption and the related emissions can be reduced significantly through the installation of basic, low-cost insulation measures to reduce heat loss through the building fabric. For example, energy use for space heating can be reduced by about 25 per cent. through installation of cavity wall insulation.
Electricity: £10,900.86. The electricity tariff is a 100 per cent. renewable supply.
Gas: £1,338.59
Water: £3,616.58
Disposal of waste: £910.76. 8,217kg of waste was produced in that period, of which, 49.4 per cent. was recycled. The breakdown and record of the cost of the individual waste elements that are sent to landfill, 'energy from waste' or to recycling is not held centrally by DECC and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Housing: Finance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons local authorities are ineligible for Kickstart Housing Delivery funding. [294127]
John Healey: The aim of the Kickstart programme is to unlock stalled sites in England for the development of high-quality, mixed tenure homes. Local authorities are note eligible to apply for funding from the Kickstart Housing Delivery fund as there is a separate funding pot available to authorities to deliver new social housing on land they already own and that can be developed only by them. Where a local authority has appointed a delivery partner, for example through a disposal or development agreement to bring forward a site for housing development, the delivery partner can apply. The successful projects from round one of the local authority new build programme were announced in September. 49 local authorities, covering every region of the country, will receive a share of £130 million Government funding to build over 2,000 homes.
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