| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
1 Dec 2009 : Column 642W—continued
Departmental Press Officers
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) are employed by and (b) work for his Department. [303594]
Barbara Follett: 21 full-time equivalent press officers are employed by and work for Communities and Local Government.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost to his Department was of provision of office facilities to (a) special advisers and (b) press officers in the 2008-09 financial year. [302977]
Barbara Follett: CLG does not record office facilities costs broken down by individual business area or unit and therefore the information requested is not available.
Departmental Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what date he last travelled by (a) bus and (b) taxi in the course of his official duties. [302734]
Barbara Follett: The Secretary of State has not travelled by bus or taxi in the course of his official duties.
Derelict Land
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many acres of brownfield land there are in cities on which building development may not take place. [302083]
Mr. Ian Austin: Information is not held centrally on the area of brownfield land in cities on which building development may not take place. Information on the total amount of previously developed land that may be available for development by local authority is available from the National Land Use Database of Previously-Developed Land which is published by the Homes and Communities Agency.
Floods: Cumbria
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether local authorities will be able to claim for expenditure under the 0.2 per cent. qualifying expenditure arrangements under the Bellwin scheme in respect of expenditure necessitated by the recent floods in Cumbria. [302318]
Barbara Follett: All the local authorities in Cumbria may apply for Bellwin funding in respect of the recent floods. For this scheme, we have exceptionally decided that authorities may claim 100 per cent. grant above the threshold-which is set at 0.2 per cent. of an authority's calculated annual revenue budget.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether fire and rescue authorities are eligible for funding under the Bellwin scheme following the recent floods in Cumbria. [302320]
Barbara Follett: Fire and rescue authorities are eligible for funding under the Bellwin scheme. In this particular instance, Cumbria county council has responsibility for fire and rescue services and has already registered its intention to submit a Bellwin claim.
Floods: Finance
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what categories of local authority expenditure are not eligible for emergency financial assistance under the Bellwin scheme. [303175]
Barbara Follett: Annex B of the Bellwin guidance on the Communities and Local Government website:
gives examples of expenditure that would not normally qualify for funding under the Bellwin scheme. These include:
costs which are normally insurable, whether by the authority or any other party (e.g. under household insurance policies);
loss of income (e.g. from facilities closed as a result of the emergency), as this falls outside the scope of section 155 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989;
the normal wages and salaries of the authority's regular employees, whether diverted from their normal work or otherwise, and the standing costs of the authority's plant and equipment;
longer term works of repair and restoration, such as tree planting and repair or refurbishment of damaged but not dangerous structures;
any element of betterment, e.g. repairs to buildings to a significantly higher standard than their condition on the day before the incident.
Homes and Communities Agency
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the functions are of the Homes and Communities Agency's National Consultancy Unit; and if he will make a statement. [302804]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to Section D of the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 19 October 2009, Official Report, column 1295W.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 24 November 2009, Official Report, column 73W, on the Homes and Communities Agency: manpower, from which organisation each member of staff was seconded. [302950]
John Healey: Of the 50 secondees to Homes and Communities Agency, the majority are from Communities and Local Government; with two from Savills and one each from BERR, DCMS, English Heritage, Lambeth council, The Prince's Trust, King Sturge, BBP Regeneration, London and Quadrant and Knight Frank.
Housing and Planning Delivery Grant
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he expects to publish the Housing, Planning and Delivery Grant settlement for local authorities for 2009-10. [302085]
Mr. Ian Austin: We will make an announcement shortly.
Housing: Building Regulations
Mr. Horam: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 12 November 2009, Official Report, column 866W, on housing: building regulations, whether his Department has revisited the impact assessment of funding for overground oil tanks. [302387]
Mr. Ian Austin: The consultation on proposals to revise part J (combustion appliances and fuel storage systems) of the building regulations came to an end on 26 November. The next steps are to analyse and publish a summary of responses, agree final proposals and revise the part J Approved Document (statutory guidance). As part of this process, we will revisit the impact assessment.
Housing: Empty Property
Mr. Drew:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many empty (a) private and (b) public homes there were in each region of the
UK in each of the last two years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [303204]
Mr. Ian Austin: The term public homes has been interpreted as those owned by local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs). Information is available only for regions in England.
A table showing estimates of the number of empty dwellings in the private and public sector in each region in England in the last two years has been placed in the House Library.
Total vacant dwellings reported by local authorities through council taxbase returns include long-term (six months and more) and short-term vacancies. Figures for RSLs are for self-contained general needs units only.
Housing: Energy
Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he plans to encourage the retrofitting of the existing housing stock with energy efficiency technologies through the building regulations. [302090]
Mr. Ian Austin: Energy efficiency standards are set out in Part L of the building regulations, 'Conservation of fuel and power'. Part L requirements apply only when building work is carried out to existing dwellings. The standards typically cover the construction of extensions, the conversion of non-domestic buildings to dwellings, the installation of new and replacement heating, ventilation and lighting systems, window replacement, and other alterations. We have recently consulted on proposals to raise Part L standards in 2010 and plan to publish a summary of responses at the end of the year.
Housing: Low Incomes
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what applications he has received for funding under his Department's Kickstart programme for projects in Hendon; what funding has been made available; and if he will make a statement. [302096]
John Healey: Details of all round one approved Kickstart schemes, are posted on the Homes and Communities Agency's website at:
This includes a project in Stonegrove.
Local Government Finance: Kent
Dr. Ladyman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding from (a) revenue support, (b) capital grant and (c) supported borrowing was provided by central Government to (i) Kent county council, (ii) Thanet district council and (iii) Dover district council in (A) 2007-08 and (B) 2008-09. [302136]
Barbara Follett:
Please find as follows a table providing the amount of formula grant, which is made up of revenue support grant and redistributed business rates for non-police authorities, for each of the authorities requested. Formula grant is an unhypothecated block
grant. This means that authorities are free to spend the money on any service provided that they meet their statutory duties.
| £ million | |||||
| Local authority | Year | Prior years adjusted formula grant | Current year ' s formula grant | Change | Percentage change |
Information on the provision of capital grants is not held centrally.
Supported borrowing or supported capital expenditure (revenue) is supported through formula grant. Since formula grant is an unhypothecated block grant, and due to the calculations of formula grant, particularly floor damping, it is not possible to say how much grant has been provided for the support of capital expenditure.
Local Government Services
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he plans to extend Total Place pilots to include (a) the Stroud district and (b) other rural areas. [303206]
Ms Rosie Winterton: 13 Total Place pilot authorities were chosen to ensure a diverse mix of economic, geographical and demographic profiles. This includes rural areas.
There are also over 70 parallel places, urban and rural, undertaking Total Place type activity. These numbers continue to rise as more and more local authorities begin to consider the real potential of a whole area approach, looking at all the services in their area and consider how they can bring about much-needed change in the way these services can be delivered more effectively and efficiently.
Operational Efficiency Programme
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what efficiency savings projects (a) his Department and (b) its agencies put in place under the Operational Efficiency Programme; on what date each such project was initiated; how much each such project was expected to contribute to departmental savings; how much had been saved through each such project on the latest date for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [300928]
Barbara Follett:
The Department is approaching the efficiency agenda as a group endeavour in close collaboration with our arm's-length bodies and Government offices. We have made good progress on delivering on
the Operational Efficiency Programme and have a range of initiatives in place to deliver efficiencies. These include implementing shared services and rationalising back office systems; collaborative procurement, where we are reviewing and renewing supplier arrangements across a range of common goods and services; consolidation of office accommodation and implementing open plan and flexible desk sharing and rationalisation of our group estate. For our arm's-length bodies, delivering efficiencies is about transforming service delivery models and improving front-line services to drive down costs. We continue to work closely with our ALBs as they implement these initiatives.
Public Works Loans Board: Croydon
Malcolm Wicks: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will make an assessment of the circumstances necessitating Croydon council's loan of £145.6 million from the Public Works Loans Board; and if he will make a statement. [303436]
Barbara Follett: It is not appropriate for the Department to make such an assessment or a statement on this matter. Decisions on self-financed borrowing are a matter for local authorities. The prudential borrowing system imposes a duty for local authorities to determine and keep under review the amount they can afford to borrow.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |