Council Housing
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many homes from local authority housing stock were disposed of in each year since 1997; [316741]
(2) what the net change in the number of homes in local authority housing stock was in each year since 1997. [316742]
Mr. Ian Austin: The changes in local authority stock are given in the following table:
| Financial year | Change in stock over previous year |
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1028W
Departmental Accountancy
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether any written instructions have been provided to the Accounting Officer for his Department and its predecessors in accordance with paragraph 5.5 of the Ministerial Code since May 1997. [315316]
Barbara Follett: The accounting officer for the Department for Communities and Local Government has not obtained a ministerial direction since the Department was established in May 2006. I am not aware that any ministerial directions were issued to accounting officers of CLG's predecessor Departments in respect of the Department's current responsibilities since May 1997.
Departmental Public Consultation
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he has made a recent estimate of the cost of (a) on and (b) off-line electronic consultation by his Department; whether he has plans to increase his Department's use of new media technologies to undertake consultations; and if he will make a statement. [315089]
Barbara Follett: All the Department's consultations are available online, with paper and Braille copies made available upon request. To date, no assessment of the overall costs of electronic consultations has taken place. The Department considers a range of media channels when engaging with people on a case by case basis and will continue to utilise new media channels to consult where appropriate.
Fire Services
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the availability of alternative technologies and products to perform an equivalent function to regional fire and rescue control centres. [316586]
Mr. Malik: We are committed to delivering the FiReControl project. Our prime contractor is EADS who are contracted to deliver the IT solution, following a competitive procurement.
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1029W
Government Car and Despatch Agency
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department paid to the Government Car and Despatch Agency in each of the last five years; how much it has spent on such payments in 2009-10; and what proportion of such payments was made in respect of the Government Car Service. [316788]
Barbara Follett: The Department has spent the following amounts with the Government Car and Dispatch Agency since 2006. Figures for earlier years could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
|
| £ |
This figure could be disaggregated only at disproportionate cost but the costs to the Department of ministerial cars are reported annually to Parliament by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport through written ministerial statements and are available in the Libraries of the House.
Government Offices for the Regions: Finance
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding streams are administered by the Government Offices for the Regions. [316774]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government Offices for the Regions have specific responsibility for an administration running cost budget and a capital budget.
Programme budgets administered by the Government Offices are the responsibility of the Secretaries of State for the relevant sponsor Departments. The Departments delegate authority to the regional directors to spend against their programmes, though all expenditure incurred is recorded in the accounts of the Department concerned.
There are currently 12 existing Sponsor Departments to the Government Offices Network; CLG, BIS, DfT, DCFS, DWP, DEFRA, Home Office, MoJ, DECC, DCMS, Cabinet Office and DoH.
Homes and Communities Agency
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by the Homes and Communities Agency Academy at the most recent date for which figures are available. [316406]
John Healey: As at the 31 December 2009, the Homes and Communities Agency Academy employed 22.8 full-time equivalent staff.
Grant Shapps:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent on (a) staff, (b) accommodation and (c) administration by the (i) Homes and Communities Agency, (ii) Homes and Communities Agency Academy and (iii)
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1030W
Tenant Services Authority in 2008-09; and how much each such organisation has budgeted for in each such category of expenditure in 2009-10. [316408]
John Healey: Spend for 2008-09 can be found in the published annual report and accounts of the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenant Services Authority. The accommodation and administration costs of the academy are contained within the overall costs of the Homes and Communities Agency. Details of the organisations' running costs budget can be found in their corporate plans and it is for the organisations to decide throughout the year how to allocate this budget within their programme sub-heads. Full details of spend for 2009-10 will be available in the 2009-10 annual report and accounts.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Homes and Communities Agency has spent in each region in each year since its inception. [316433]
John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) was established from 1 December 2008-09, though it reported in its financial statements 2008-09 on a merger accounting basis with figures covering the full financial year for 2008-09 (so including spend by the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships and also those programmes formerly delivered by the Department, during the earlier part of the year).
Information on HCA's total spending broken down by region and by local authority for 2008-09 is to be published on HCA's website in due course. In addition, spending on social housing grant by the HCA through the national affordable housing programme is already shown for each English region for 2008-09, in the agency's financial statements for 2008-09.
In-year progress in 2009-10 on national affordable housing programme regional allocations made through the continuous market engagement process is reported through quarterly regional investment statements, made available on the relevant regional pages of HCA's website.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Homes and Communities Agency spent on its (a) Decent Homes and Mixed Communities, (b) Growth, (c) Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant, (d) Housing Market Renewal, (e) Thames Gateway Delivery, (f) Place of Change and (g) Vulnerable People programme in 2008-09; and how much it expects to spent on each such programme in 2009-10. [316481]
John Healey: For items (a) to (f), this information is available in the HCA's annual report and accounts, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House, or its corporate plan which is available at:
http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/public/documents/HCA_Corporate%20Plan_English.pdf
In respect of Vulnerable People, the Place of Change and Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant programmes are specifically targeted at vulnerable people. The HCA also seeks to support vulnerable and older people through its more general programmes such as the National
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1031W
Affordable Housing Programme, which covers both general needs and specialised and supported housing, and the Property and Regeneration programme.
Housing
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 30 March 2009, Official Report, column 969W, on the housing market, when Ministers were first informed of the new analytical model developed by Heriot-Watt University; when that model came into use in his Department; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the research report associated with the development of that model. [316744]
Mr. Ian Austin: Ministers approved the commissioning of the housing need analytical model in March 2008. A final version of the model was provided to the Department in November 2009. The associated research report is currently being finalised.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) homes and (b) households there were in each region in each of the last two years. [316805]
Mr. Ian Austin: Information on the number of dwellings in each region of England is shown on an annual basis in live table 109 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/table-109.xls
Information on the number of households in each region of England is shown on an annual basis in live table S135a on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/1393611.xls
Housing: Construction
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new (a) affordable homes and (b) homes for social rent have been built in the spending period 2008-11. [316743]
Mr. Ian Austin: The most recent available information relates to 2008-09 and can be found in Live Table 1009 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/1406088.xls
Grant Shapps:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes were (a) started and (b) completed by (i) local
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1032W
authorities, (ii) housing associations and (iii) private builders in (A) 2008-09 and (B) 2009-10 to date. [316820]
Mr. Ian Austin: Information on the number of starts and completions by the tenure of the dwelling, rather than by who built the dwelling, is shown on a quarterly basis in Live Table 213 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/1387065.xls
The same series is shown on a seasonally adjusted basis in Live Table 222 on the Communities and Local Government website at the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/1387071.xls
Housing: Finance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department spent on the major repairs allowance in 2008-09; and how much he expects to spend on the allowance in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11. [316813]
Mr. Ian Austin: The total major repairs allowances for the three years are given in the following table.
| Major repairs allowance (£) | |
| (1) Subject to audit. (2) Projected. | |
Figures for 2008-09 and 2009-10 are taken from the latest housing revenue account subsidy claim forms, the projection for 2010-11 is taken from the recent HRA subsidy determination.
Housing: Morecambe
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding the Government have allocated for housing regeneration in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency since 1997. [311560]
Mr. Ian Austin: Funding for housing regeneration is mainly delivered through the Homes and Communities Agency. The Homes and Communities Agency operates and plans at a local authority level.
The following table provides details of HCA spend within the local authority area of Lancaster from 2004-05 onwards.
|
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| The Agency's Property and Regeneration programme relies on a mixture of receipts from disposed land assets as well as on Government grant. | |||||