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25 Jan 2010 : Column 561W—continued
Audit Commission: Procurement
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 16 December 2009, Official Report, column 1261W, on the Audit Commission: procurement, how much the Audit Commission paid to (a) the Reform Club (b) AA The Driving School and (c) The Twisted Oak Pub in 2008-09; on what dates such payments were made; and what services were provided by each organisation. [311828]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission, and I will ask the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from Steve Bundred, dated 25 January 2010:
Your Parliamentary Question has been passed to me to reply.
The Commission made the following payments to:
A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard.
Audit Commission: Public Relations
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 7 December 2009, Official Report, column 58W, on the Audit Commission: public relations; if he will place in the Library a copy of the commissioned documents paid for on (a) 10 June 2009, (b) 12 June 2009 and (c) 14 September 2009. [311516]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Copies of the requested documents have been placed in the Library.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 7 December 2009, Official Report, column 59W, on the Audit Commission: public relations, if he will place in the Library a copy of the perceptions and influence map commissioned by the Audit Commission. [311550]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A copy of the document requested has been placed in the Library.
Departmental Co-ordination
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what contribution his Department is making to the Ministry of Justice's proposed accommodation relocation and nationalisation project. [312034]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Communities and Local Government was formally consulted, as lead Department on regeneration, as to how any Ministry of Justice relocation could address regeneration needs and issues. This included contributing policy advice and expertise on appropriate analytical sources and techniques to help establish criteria against which any relocation could be measured, including where the Ministry of Justice could consider siting any national activities.
Domestic Waste: Waste Disposal
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many complaints the Local Government Ombudsman has received in relation to waste collection services in each of the last five years. [312029]
Ms Rosie Winterton: For the years 2004-05 to 2008-09 the Local Government Ombudsman received the following number of complaints about waste collection.
| Complaints about waste collection | |
| Number | |
Energy Efficiency
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will discuss with his US counterpart the applicability to UK building stock of the report on building sector energy efficiency presented by the US Administration to the Major Economies Forum in December 2009. [312450]
Mr. Ian Austin: We are always keen to learn from the experience of other nations in improving the energy efficiency of buildings but I have no plans to discuss this report with colleagues in the US Administration.
Floods: Greater London
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of new dwellings built in London were built in areas of high flood risk in the most recent year for which figures are available. [311628]
Mr. Ian Austin: In 2008, 20,590 dwellings were built in London. Around 4,500 (22 per cent.) of these were estimated to be built in areas of high flood risk.
The Environment Agency has statutory responsibility for flood risk management and flood defence in England. It has an important advisory role in all stages of the plan-making process, being a statutory consultee on the preparation of regional spatial strategies and local development plans. Local planning authorities are required to consult the Agency on all applications for planning permission (except for minor development) in areas with a medium or high probability of flooding, or in areas notified as having critical drainage problems (collectively known as "flood risk areas"), and for development on land exceeding one hectare outside flood risk areas.
The Agency also provides advice on the preparation of flood risk assessments at the regional, district/local and development site levels. The Environment Agency can ask for any planning application to which it objects to be called in for decision by the Secretary of State. In addition, the (planning) Consultation Direction requires that planning applications for major developments (e.g., of 10 or more homes, or 1,000 square meters of new floor space) in flood risk areas where there is an outstanding Environment Agency objection on flood risk grounds, must be referred to the Secretary of State for consideration of whether they should be called in.
Housing: Construction
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government by what means the contents of the written ministerial statement of 19 January 2010, Official Report, columns 6-7WS, on planning, appeared in The Daily Telegraph on the morning of 19 January 2010; and who authorised the provision of the information to The Daily Telegraph. [312931]
John Healey: No journalist had sight or copy of my written ministerial statement of 19 January 2010, Official Report, columns 6-7WS, on planning before it was laid in the House.
Housing: Leaseback Arrangements
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what figures his Department and its agencies hold on sale and rent back transactions of domestic properties; [312002]
(2) how many sale and rent bank transactions of domestic properties there were in each of the last five years. [312857]
Mr. Ian Austin: Data on sale and rent back transactions are not held by this Department. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry) on 20 January 2010, Official Report, column 391W.
Housing: Parking
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether his Department has commissioned research into the attitudes of home buyers in relation to the effects on buying behaviour of the availability of car parking spaces at new build houses. [312882]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Department has not commissioned any research on this topic.
Housing: Standards
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes have received Level 6 Code for Sustainable Homes certification. [312009] [Official Report, 28 January 2010, Vol. 504, c. 7-8MC.]
Mr. Ian Austin: Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes (the Code) is a zero carbon home with very high sustainability standards and is an incredibly high standard to build to. However, we now have a growing number of homes been built to this higher level of the Code.
It takes between 18 months and two years to design and build a Code home. The Code came into operation in April 2007, but we did not start seeing homes built to the Code standard until late 2008. The number of Code homes is increasing every month. At the end of December 2009, there were a total of 2,434 homes with Code certificates spread across all Code levels at post-construction stage (i.e. completed Code homes), 10,319 at design stage and over 300,000 registered homes on over 3,000 developments. Most of these homes are built to Code level 3-which represents for energy a 25 per cent. improvement on the current building regulations and is a demanding building standard. Homes funded by the Homes and Communities Agency are required to meet Code level 3 standard.
There are two stages in the assessment process for the Code and 110 homes have been certified.
Local Government Services
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the status is of the two-tier joint working pathfinder project; and if he will place in the Library a copy of each evaluation report for the pathfinder pilots. [311521]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 20 October 2009, Official Report, column 1396W.
Local Government: Publicity
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what timetable has been set for the completion of the Audit Commission's study into council publicity expenditure. [311712]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission, and I will ask the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from Steve Bundred, dated 25 January 2010:
Your Parliamentary Question has been passed to me to reply.
No timetable has been set for the completion of the Audit Commission's work on council publicity expenditure.
The Commission Board considered evidence collected in response to the request in the Digital Britain report at its meeting on 17 December 2009. We expect to write to the Minister for Digital Britain with our findings by Friday 22 January 2010.
A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard.
Local Government: Reorganisation
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full time-equivalent staff work in his Department's local government review unit on unitary council restructuring. [312010]
Ms Rosie Winterton: There are some 10 full-time equivalent staff working on the structure of local government including work on unitary council restructuring, and on improving the operation of two-tier local government structures.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans he has for elections to the new shadow unitary authorities. [312011]
Ms Rosie Winterton: As indicated in the Department's discussion papers issued on 6 January 2010 seeking the views of councils in Devon, Norfolk, and Suffolk on possible transitional arrangements, were the Secretary of State to decide to implement any unitary proposal for those areas, the first elections to any new council may be in May 2010 or in May 2011.
If the Secretary of State decides to implement any unitary proposal, he will then decide the transitional arrangements for implementing the proposal, including the timing of elections, having regard to the responses received to the Department's discussion papers.
Natural Gas: Storage
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what representations he has received on the recent decision by Lancashire county council to refuse planning permission for a proposed facility for further gas storage capability in that area. [312339]
Mr. Ian Austin: I understand that there have been no recent decisions made by Lancashire county council in respect of planning applications for gas storage. However a planning application was made by Canatxx Gas Storage Ltd. for the creation of an underground gas storage facility in Preesall, Wyre, on 20 February 2009, and it is expected to be determined by the county council on 27 January 2010.
To date, no representations have been received by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in respect of this planning application.
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