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1 Mar 2010 : Column 960W—continued
2. Introducing water efficiency targets at 125 litres per person per day into Part G of the Building Regulations in line with standards set in the Code for Sustainable Homes at level 1 and 2.
3. National Planning Policy Statements also allows local authorities to set higher than national standards into local planning policy. This means that as long as the local circumstances justify it, and does not make house-building unviable, local authorities:
could set a code level standard for new housing development in particular locations.
should require new development to be planned to make good use of opportunities for decentralised and renewable and low-carbon energy-planning policies should support innovation and investment in sustainable buildings.
Mr. Rooney: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he is taking to raise awareness of the Construction Skills Certification Scheme among local government procurement officers. [319689]
Barbara Follett: Local authorities are responsible for their own procurement decisions. In doing so, they will have regard to good practice, including where relevant the use of construction industry competency card schemes.
Housing: Energy
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what representations the Energy Saving Trust has made to his Department on the (a) level of council tax on and (b) sale or rent of properties with an energy efficiency rating of F or G. [319268]
Barbara Follett: No representations have been received by this Department about (a) the level of council tax on and (b) the sale or rent of properties with an energy efficiency rating of F or G.
Local Government Finance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much he expects to be spent on growth funding in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11. [318726]
John Healey: The Department has allocated £272.5 million of Growth Funds in 2009-10 and £184.3 million in 2010-11. Awards for 2010-11 are provisional with the allocations being paid and confirmed in early 2010. We will adopt a policy of only altering provisional allocations in exceptional circumstances, in line with the approach taken in relation to the local government finance settlement. As a single unringfenced block grant, local authorities have the flexibility to prioritise how and when they spend their funding allocations. In addition, £60 million of eco-towns growth funding was announced on 8 February 2010.
A full list of allocations is available on the Department's website:
www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingsupply/growth areas/supportinggrowthfunding/
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his policy is on the charging of a district precept and a parish precept for provision of the same services to residents in parished areas. [319288]
Barbara Follett: The issue of precepts is a matter for the major and local precepting authorities as set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1992. There is no requirement for the precept to be broken down against specific services provided.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 12 May 2009, Official Report, column 721W, on local government finance, how much has been allocated to performance reward grant funding in (a) each year since its was introduced, (b) 2009-10, (c) 2010-11 and (d) 2011-12. [319310]
Barbara Follett: Since the scheme began in 2000 about £3.04 billion has been allocated by the Treasury to performance reward grant funding. £1.2 billion was allocated to the first round as part of spending review 2000 and £1.5 billion was allocated to the second under comprehensive spending review 2004. A further £340 million was allocated to the current round as part of comprehensive spending review 2007.
Local Government Finance: Oxfordshire
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what grounds his Department rejected the exceptional circumstances case put to it by West Oxfordshire district council in relation to the rate support grant settlement on 23 December 2009. [317748]
Barbara Follett: The Government consulted on the Formula Grant Settlement for local authorities in England between 26 November 2009 and 6 January 2010. In their representation, West Oxfordshire sought a recalculation of the settlement using the most recent data on their council tax base, instead of the projected data that has been used for all authorities in the calculation of the Government's proposals.
The council tax base projections used in the 2008-09 to 2010-11 Provisional Settlements were calculated in November 2007 and took into account tax base data from October 2005 and 2007. These projections used the latest data available at the time of the three-year settlement's original calculation and were calculated on a consistent basis for all local authorities.
One of the principles of multi-year settlements is the provision of more predictability and certainty in relation to the funding that we provide to local government, so that authorities can plan and manage their budgets better. Reopening the settlement to change data for an authority would undermine this principle as it would also change the distribution of formula grant for all local authorities. For this reason, where a three-year settlement is in operation, we have a clearly stated policy of only changing published provisional local government finance reports under entirely exceptional circumstances. The Government considered all representations received during consultation, including the representation from West Oxfordshire dated 23 December 2009, but concluded that no exceptional circumstances had arisen.
Local Government: Apprentices
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to his Department's press release of 2 February 2010, on apprenticeships, if he will place in the Library a copy of the (a) full dataset of the snapshot findings and (b) accompanying analysis. [319116]
Barbara Follett: This snapshot of information, voluntarily provided by local authorities, was used to help inform policy. Aggregate information was included in the press notice, 'John Denham Urges Councils to Create 3,000 More Apprenticeships'. The Department has no plans to publish the full data set.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to his Department's press release of 2 February 2010, on apprenticeships, what criteria were used to determine which local authorities would be eligible for local authority green space apprenticeships. [319118]
Barbara Follett: Funding to support the training and employment costs of the first year of each additional apprenticeship was offered to local authorities which met the following criteria:
Had been defined as urban under DEFRA's current (post-April 2009) rural definitions and local authority classifications;
Had already take on apprentices or had put schemes on hold due to financial constraints, but would be ready to restart given this funding;
Would be able to provide any additional funding required to run the schemes for their whole duration.
Local Government: Bank Services
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent information he has received from (a) Bassetlaw district council and (b) other local authorities on repayments in respect of losses on investments in Icelandic banks. [318948]
Barbara Follett: The Department does not collect information from local authorities on repayments in respect of losses on investments in Icelandic banks. The Resolution Committee for Landsbanki and Glitnir and the UK administrators of Heritable and Kaupthing, Singer and Friedland Ltd. have published information on likely rates of return. Local authorities are in direct contact with these administrators.
Local Government: Cornwall
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield of 20 January 2010, Official Report, column 381W, on local government: Cornwall, what proportion of the £15.64 million of savings is estimated to relate to (a) unitary restructuring and (b) other factors. [318076]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The budgeted savings are due to unitary restructuring.
Local Government: Cost Effectiveness
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what targets his Department has set for local authorities to make efficiency savings of each type in each of the next three years. [319039]
Barbara Follett: Local Government has a target to achieve at least 4 per cent. efficiency savings in 2010-11. Overall, we expect local authorities to achieve £5.5 billion of cumulative savings in the three years to 2010-11, of which we expect £3.2 billion to be delivered in the current year.
No target has been set for efficiency savings to be delivered in 2011-12 or 2012-13. The 2009 pre-Budget report set out the potential for local government to make £800 million savings by 2012-13, of which: £550 million could come from more efficient waste collection and disposal, reducing the burden of inspection, assessment and reporting requirements from across government, and measures to reduce duplication and inefficiency between different tiers of local government; and £250 million from reducing variations in spend on residential care. Local government is also expected to make a significant contribution towards the £8 billion of Operational Efficiency Programme savings identified for delivery by 2012-13 in the pre-Budget report.
Local Government: Job Evaluation
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) financial and (b) other assistance his Department provides to local authorities for the purposes of undertaking the job evaluation process. [319420]
Barbara Follett: The Department does not provide financial or other assistance to local authorities for the purposes of undertaking the job evaluation process.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether his Department issues guidance to local authorities on responding to requests from local authority staff to (a) delay and (b) appeal against a result of the job evaluation process. [319421]
Barbara Follett: The Department does not issue guidance on job evaluation processes.
Local Government: National Insurance Contributions
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 11 January 2010, Official Report, column 769W, on national insurance contributions: local government, what the estimated cost to local authorities is of the increase in employer contributions in 2011-12; and whether funding will be allocated to local authorities for the purposes of meeting the cost of that increase. [319317]
Barbara Follett: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) on 23 February 2010, Official Report, column 492W.
Local Government: Pay
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what requirements there are on local authorities to publish the salaries of (a) identified and (b) unidentified local government employees. [319272]
Barbara Follett: Local authorities are required to disclose in their Statement of Annual Accounts details of the number of staff earning over £50,000 per annum in £10,000 bandings.
New legislation will come into force on 31 March 2010 which will require local authorities to disclose these details in £5,000 bandings. In addition, for senior officers local authorities will be required to publish detailed remuneration information within their Statement of Annual Accounts, in the following categories:
the total amount of salary, fees or allowances
the total amount of bonuses paid or receivable
the total amount of expenses allowance
the total amount of any compensation
the body's contribution to the person's pension
the total estimated value of any other benefits
'Senior' officers earning over £50,000 pro rata per annum to be listed by job title, except where officers receive over £150,000 in which case they will be named.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authority staff earned over (a) £50,000 a year and (b) £100,000 a year in the most recent period for which figures are available. [319283]
Barbara Follett: The information requested is not held centrally.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what information his Department holds on levels of pay inflation among senior local government officers since 1997. [319284]
Barbara Follett: The information requested is not held centrally.
Members: Correspondence
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) when he expects to reply to the email from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire, dated 18 January 2010, on the Code for Sustainable Homes publication; [319457]
(2) when he expects to reply to the email from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire, dated 26 January 2010, on private tenants. [319459]
Barbara Follett: Replies were sent on 25 February 2010.
Mortgages: Government Assistance
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when his Department next plans to publish its statistical bulletin on (a) the Mortgage Rescue Scheme, (b) repossessions and (c) the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme. [319040]
John Healey: Mortgage Rescue Scheme monitoring statistics covering the January to March period are due to be published on the CLG website on Thursday 13 May 2010, as pre-announced on the UK Statistics Authority Publication Hub and the CLG Statistics Publication Schedule. This date coincides with the quarterly release of statistics on arrears and possessions and court activity by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Ministry of Justice respectively.
For management information on Homeowners Mortgage Support I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 16 December 2009, Official Report, column 1297W.
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many applications were made to the Homeowner Mortgage Protection Scheme by homeowners in 2009; and how many of them have met the eligibility criteria. [319367]
John Healey: For management information on Homeowners Mortgage Support I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 16 December 2009, Official Report, column 1297W.
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