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22 Feb 2010 : Column 277W—continued
Data are as reported to Communities and Local Government by all billing authorities in England on the annual National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) returns.
The figures given are the net empty property relief granted in that year irrespective of the year to which the empty property relief related. It can also include the repayment of non-domestic rates where empty property relief should have been granted in previous years but was not.
In 2008-09, the rules governing empty and partly occupied property relief were reformed by the Rating (Empty Properties) Act 2007 and further reforms were introduced for 2009-10.
Our reforms to empty property relief are principled and right for the long-term. They provide a strong incentive on owners to bring empty property back into use, helping to improve access to premises for businesses and so to exert a downward pressure on commercial rents.
However, we provided owners with real help to manage short-term pressures in a difficult property market by exempting all empty properties with rateable values up to £15,000 from business rates in 2009-10.
We have listened to the continued concerns of owners and we are extending the temporary measure for a further 12 months-to cover the whole of 2010-11-and we are uprating the threshold to £18,000 in line with the general movement of property values at revaluation.
Private Rented Housing
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of vulnerable people in each vulnerability group who lived in decent private sector homes in each year since 2002. [316811]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Wright) gave him on 27 March 2009, Official Report, column 789W.
Private Rented Housing: Homelessness
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many private sector properties were leased by (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations in order to house homeless households in 2008-09. [315678]
Mr. Ian Austin: Use of accommodation with shared facilities has declined over recent years, largely through reduced bed and breakfast usage. Within the last 10 years, bed and breakfast style accommodation use peaked during 2002, when 16 per cent. of households were in this form of temporary accommodation, compared to 4 per cent. at the end of March 2009. The proportion of self-contained accommodation has increased over this period; in particular private sector accommodation leased short-term by local authorities or registered social landlords, which rose from under 30 per cent. during 2002 to 59 per cent. at the end of March 2009. On 30 March 2009, there were 37,450 households in private sector temporary accommodation leased short-term by local authorities and registered social landlords, of which 25,750 households were in accommodation leased by a local authority and 11,700 households were in accommodation leased or managed by a registered social landlord.
Safer Stronger Communities Fund
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent on (a) programmes, (b) staffing, (c) administration and (d) publicity by the Safer and Stronger Communities Fund; and what estimate he has made of the number of people assisted by the fund. [317841]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Safer and Stronger Communities Fund is allocated to local authorities through area-based grant. For the current spending period, £51.967 million was allocated in 2008-09 and £30.909 million in 2009-10, with an indicative allocation of £4.893 million in 2010-11. The SSCF is a non ring-fenced fund and local authorities have flexibility over how it is spent. It is therefore not possible to break down spend into programmes, staffing, administration and publicity.
Supporting People Programme
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent on (a) staffing, (b) administration and (c) publicity for the Supporting People programme. [317212]
Barbara Follett: Communities and Local Government provide local authorities with administration grant as a contribution towards the costs of managing the programme at a local level but do not require authorities to provide details of actual expenditure on staffing, administration or publicity for the Supporting People programme.
It is possible that some local authorities do not record these sorts of expenditure for their Supporting People grants specifically. Communities and Local Government would not be able to provide this information without a disproportionate amount of effort, and for those local authorities who do not record this type of expenditure even a disproportionate amount of effort would not yield any results.
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent on the Supporting People programme; and how many people have received assistance under the programme since its inception. [317213]
Barbara Follett: The information requested is as follows:
| Supporting People household unit and spend information | ||||||
| Financial year: | 2003-04( 1) | 2004-05( 2) | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
The household unit figures provided represent a snapshot of the capacity of Supporting People services (measured in households) at a particular point in time; in this instance as at 31 March each year, to correspond with the collection of spend data. It should be noted that household unit information is not representative of the number of households who have actually received support during the quarter or year.
Working Neighbourhoods Fund
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent on (a) staffing, (b) administration and (c) publicity for the Working Neighbourhoods Fund. [317211]
Ms Rosie Winterton: As a locally managed fund, central Government do not hold this information.
£1.52 billion has been allocated to the Working Neighbourhoods Fund for the period 2008-11. It is allocated to local authorities with high rates of worklessness, thereby giving them the flexibility to respond to local circumstances when tackling worklessness and promoting enterprise.
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent on the Working Neighbourhoods Fund; and how many people have received assistance from the funds. [317214]
Ms Rosie Winterton: £1.52 billion has been allocated to the Working Neighbourhoods Fund for the period 2008-11. It is allocated to local authorities with high rates of worklessness, thereby giving them the flexibility to respond to local circumstances when tackling worklessness and promoting enterprise.
As a locally managed fund, central Government do not hold information on the number of people assisted.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Apprentices: East Sussex
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many small and medium-sized businesses in (a) Lewes constituency and (b) East Sussex are employing apprentices. [315760]
Kevin Brennan: Record numbers of people are taking up and achieving an apprenticeship. Table 1 shows the number of apprenticeship starts in Lewes parliamentary constituency, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove local authorities.
| Table 1: Apprenticeship starts, Lewes parliamentary constituency, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove local authorities (2003/04 to 2008/09) | ||||||
| 2003/04 | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | |
| Notes: 1. Parliamentary constituency volumes are rounded to the nearest 10. Local authority figures are rounded to the nearest 100. 2. Parliamentary constituency and local authority are based upon the home postcode of the learner. 3. Information is not currently available on the size of the employer for apprentices. For the 2009/10 academic year, this information will become available on the ILR when a unique employer identifier will have to be provided by all employers of apprentices. Source: WBL/ER Individualised Learner Record | ||||||
We can provide an estimate of the size of employers, nationally, that offer and have recruited apprentices from the National Employers Skills Survey (NESS). These data are based on repeated surveys of up to 79,000 employers across all business sectors in England. Table 2 shows information from the published 2007 National Employer Skills survey(1) on the number of organisations that had any staff undertaking an apprenticeship in the 12 months prior to interview, by size of employer.
| Table 2: Percentage of employers that had any staff undertaking an apprenticeship over the previous 12 months (NESS 2007) | |
| Percentage | |
| (1) http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/National/nat-nessurvey2007mainreport-may08.pdf accessed on 4 February 2010. | |
Apprentices: Feltham
Alan Keen: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many modern apprenticeships have been started in Feltham and Heston constituency since 1997. [316692]
Kevin Brennan: Table 1 shows the number of apprenticeship starts in Feltham and Heston parliamentary constituency from 2003/04 onwards, the earliest year for which comparable data are available.
| Table 1: Apprenticeship programme starts for Feltham and Heston parliamentary constituency, 2003/04 to 2008/09 | |
| Academic year | Number of starts |
| Notes: 1. Figures for Feltham and Heston parliamentary constituency are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Figures are based upon home postcode of the learner. 3. Figures include apprenticeship, advanced apprenticeships and higher level apprenticeships. Source: Individualised Learner Record. | |
Information on the number of apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency, local authority, Government office region and for England is published in a quarterly statistical first release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 17 December, and re-issued on 21 January to include provisional national estimates of the number of apprenticeship starts and achievements in the first quarter of 2009/10:
Apprentices: Hemsworth
Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many modern apprenticeships have been started in Hemsworth since 1997. [316614]
Kevin Brennan: The following table 1 shows the number of Apprenticeship starts in Hemsworth parliamentary constituency from 2003/04 onwards, the earliest year for which comparable data is available.
| Table 1: Apprenticeship programme starts for Hemsworth parliamentary constituency, 2003/04 to 2008/09 | |
| Academic year | Number of starts |
| Notes: 1. Figures for Hemsworth parliamentary constituency are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Figures are based upon home postcode of the learner. 3. Figures include Apprenticeship, Advanced Apprenticeships and Higher Level Apprenticeships. Source: Individualised Learner Record | |
Information on the number of Apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency, local authority, government office region and for England is published in a quarterly
statistical first release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 17 December, and re-issued on 21 January to include provisional national estimates of the number of apprenticeship starts and achievements in the first quarter of 2009/10:
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