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Fire Services: Contracts

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which contractors have been awarded contracts worth over £1 million under the FiReControl regional fire control room project to date. [303480]

Mr. Malik: The following have been awarded contracts worth over £1 million under the FiReControl project:

Contractors

Developers

Landlords

Fire Services: Finance

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his most recent (a) assessment of the progress on and (b) estimate of the cost of the FiReControl project is. [303299]

Mr. Malik: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Mr. Reed) on 2 November 2009, Official Report, column 761W.

The estimated full cost of implementing FiReControl is £420 million.

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the estimated gross cost of the FireControl project is over each of the next 15 years. [303462]

Mr. Malik: The estimated remaining FiReControl implementation project cost is circa £230 million. Beyond implementation Communities and Local Government has also committed to support any fire and rescue authority for whom operating costs are forecast to increase under the new networked control arrangements. The current estimate for this is £8.2 million each year.


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Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons other than specification changes expenditure on the FiReControl project has exceeded the initial budget. [303482]

Mr. Malik: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Mr. Reed) on 2 November 2009, Official Report, column 764W.

Fires: Death

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average age was of those killed in domestic fires in each fire and rescue authority area in each year since 2000. [307180]

Mr. Malik: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people have been killed in domestic fires in properties held under each type of housing tenure in each fire and rescue authority area in each year since 2000. [307189]

Mr. Malik: Type of housing tenure is not currently collected in fire incident records. The practicalities of doing so are being considered within the current review of the information collected by the Incident Recording System.

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people of each (a) sex and (b) ethnicity have been killed in domestic fires in each fire and rescue authority area in each year since 2000. [307190]

Mr. Malik: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Information on the number of fatalities by ethnicity has been collected only since the introduction of the new Incident Recording System. This was live across all of England and much of the UK from 1 April 2009. Data for 2009-10 will be available in summer 2010.

Flats: Construction

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of new completed dwellings in England have been flats in each year since 2000. [306748]

Mr. Ian Austin: Figures for the number of new-build dwellings completed in England each year since 2000 are given in live table 244 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:

Figures on the proportion of new-build dwellings completed each year that were flats are given in live table 254 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:


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Floods: Cumbria

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of his Department's expenditure on flood recovery in Cumbria in the next six months; and if he will make a statement. [304712]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Prime Minister announced on 20 November that Communities and Local Government would make £1 million available for local authorities in Cumbria to use as they see fit to assist communities in recovering from the floods.

Floods: Finance

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of local authority expenditure on repairing flood damage in each of the last five years. [305229]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Gardens: Planning Permission

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the timetable is for the publication of his Department's review into garden and infill development. [305814]

Mr. Ian Austin: We will make a further announcement and publish the findings of the review together with the evidence shortly.

Green Belt

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which local planning authorities have land with green belt designation. [306400]

Mr. Ian Austin: At 31 March 2009, a total of 197 local authorities had designated Green Belt land. The detailed list is in "Local Planning Authority Green Belt Statistics: England 2008-09 Annex 1", which can be found on the Communities and Local Government website at:

Historic Buildings: Planning Permission

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what representations his Department has received from (a) the Royal Town Planning Institute and (b) heritage or conservation groups on the revision of PPS15. [305936]

Mr. Ian Austin: The Department received nearly 500 responses to the consultation exercise on draft Planning Policy Statement 15 (Planning for the Historic Environment). One of these was from the Royal Town Planning Institute, which submitted a joint response with the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. More than 50 were from heritage or conservation groups. All responses are now being considered, and a summary and analysis will be published before the end of January 2010.


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Homelessness: Young People

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people aged between 16 and 25 years have been registered as homeless in each year since 1997. [307024]

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 at:

Data collected include the number of households accepted by local housing authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore owed a main homelessness duty to secure that suitable accommodation is available ('homeless acceptances'). If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority must secure temporary accommodation (TA) until a settled home becomes available.

Figures on homeless acceptances by age group of the applicant, for each financial year since 1998-99 can be found in table 10(b) of the statistical release mentioned above. The table shows number of applicants who are aged between 16 and 24 years old. The equivalent 1997-98 figures can be found in earlier additions of the release, accessible from the following link:

Homes and Communities Agency: Assets

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) pursuant to the answer of 25 November 2009, Official Report, columns 175-76W, on the Homes and Communities Agency, when and at what cost each of the negative valued assets held by the Homes and Communities Agency was acquired; [306906]

(2) pursuant to the answer of 25 November 2009, Official Report, columns 175-76W, on the Homes and Communities Agency, what negative valued assets are held by the Homes and Communities Agency; [306908]

(3) which of the negatively valued property interests owned by the Homes and Communities Agency are related to (a) lease or leaseback interests, (b) rental guarantees and (c) assets where disengagement is dependent upon expenditure which exceeds the amount expected to be realised through future asset sales. [307139]

John Healey: Negative value assets are held in Bristol (1), Gloucester (1), Winchester (1), Milton Keynes (4), Peterborough (1), and Trafford Park, Manchester (1).

Of these, three were included as part of the 82 redundant hospital sites purchased by the Urban Regeneration Agency, one of the HCA's predecessor bodies, during the 2006 financial year. The total liability associated with the three assets was £1.8 million.


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The remaining six properties were originally taken on by the Commission for the New Towns, another of the HCA's predecessor bodies. Four of these were taken on over 10 years ago, and it is not possible to find the cost of acquiring these assets other than at disproportionate cost. Of the remaining two sites, one was taken on in 2004 for £19,000, and one in 2005. In the 2005 case, the rental guarantee of £49,000 only applied from 2009.

Of the nine property interests with negative assets, eight are in relation to rental liabilities existing on leasehold properties i.e. "lease or leaseback interests", and one is a rental guarantee. The HCA does not hold any asset where disengagement is dependent upon investment, the cost of which exceeds the value to be realised through future asset sales.

Housing

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment has been made of the effect on housing waiting lists of the recession. [306385]

Mr. Ian Austin: As at 1 April 2009 there were 1.76 million households on housing waiting lists in England. The number was 1.77 million in April 2008.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of new completed dwellings in England were flats in each year since 1997. [307074]

Mr. Ian Austin: Figures on the proportion of new-build dwellings completed each year since 1997 that were flats are given in live table 254 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:

Housing: Autism

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he plans to take under the Adult Autism Strategy to meet the housing needs of people with autism. [306287]

Mr. Ian Austin: CLG is working with the Department of Health to consider the housing needs of people with autism.

People with autism may have their housing needs met by the Supporting People programme which provides revenue funds for local authorities to commission housing related support services for vulnerable people in their area, to enable them to develop independent living skills. However, the programme is a locally delivered and managed programme and it is for each local authority to allocate the available resource based on local needs and priorities.

Public service agreement target 16 sets out the Government's aim that the most vulnerable adults are offered the chance to get back on a path to a more successful life by increasing the proportion of socially excluded adults in settled accommodation and in employment, education or training. CLG lead on the settled accommodation aspect of the PSA and the PSA 16 client group will include people with autism who are assessed as having a moderate to severe learning disability, or receiving secondary mental health services.


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Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which section of his Department is responsible for implementation of the Autism Strategy in relation to housing. [306288]

Mr. Ian Austin: The Housing Management and Support Directorate is responsible for the housing aspect of the Adult Autism Strategy.

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