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17 Mar 2010 : Column 877W—continued
Communities and Local Government
Community Development
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he has set a timetable for reaching agreement with the Local Government Association on the proposals on the shortlist produced under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 to be implemented. [321664]
Barbara Follett [holding answer 17 March 2010]: The Government are carefully considering each of the 199 short-listed proposals submitted by the selector body, the Local Government Association (LGA) under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007. We are now discussing these with the LGA as part of the process of seeking to reach agreement required by the Act.
Departmental ICT
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what information technology projects initiated by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies were cancelled prior to completion in the last 12 months; and what the cost of each such project was to the public purse. [320430]
Barbara Follett: The Department and its agencies have not cancelled any IT projects in the last 12 months.
Departmental Lost Property
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what property has been recorded as (a) lost and (b) stolen from his Department in the last 12 months; and what estimate has been made of the cost of the replacement of that property. [322071]
Barbara Follett: The property recorded as (a) lost or (b) stolen from Communities and Local Government in the last 12 months and the estimated cost of the replacement of that property is as follows:
Departmental property reported as stolen
Five BlackBerrys-valued at approximately £1,000 (£200 each)
Six laptop computers-valued at approximately £6,000 (£1,000 each)
One mobile phone-valued at approximately £200
One mobile phone charger-valued at approximately £10
None of the information contained on laptops, or BlackBerrys was classified. However, each laptop was password protected and the BlackBerrys were both encrypted and password protected.
Employee property reported as stolen
One bottle of aftershave-nil replacement cost for the Department.
Employee property reported as lost
One Apple iPhone-nil replacement cost for the Department
Departmental Pay
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department were awarded a bonus in 2009; and what the (a) highest, (b) lowest, (c) mean, (d) median and (e) mode bonus awarded was. [320798]
Barbara Follett: The following table sets out the details of performance related payments made to senior civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government following the 2009 pay award, broken down into £5,000 bands.
| Details of performance related payments | |
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of his Department's Board members who were civil servants working in his Department were awarded a bonus in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009; and what the highest bonus paid was in each of those years. [320799]
Barbara Follett: The Communities and Local Government Board consists of eight senior civil servants (SCS) and currently five non-executive members. CLG only holds records of those who are civil servants within Communities and Local Government.
In 2008 all eight executive board members received a performance related payment. The highest payment made was in the range of between £20,000 and £25,000.
In 2009, the permanent secretary volunteered to forgo a bonus. The seven other executive members received a performance related payment. The highest payment made in the range of between £10,000 and £15,000.
An element of the Communities and Local Government overall pay award is allocated to non-consolidated variable pay related to performance. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award for members of staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, for example by exceeding targets set or meeting challenging objectives.
Non-consolidated variable pay awards are funded from within existing pay bill controls, and have to be re-earned each year against pre-determined targets and,
as such, do not add to future pay bill costs. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the SCS is based on recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) highest, (b) lowest, (c) mean, (d) median and (e) mode salary paid to (i) senior civil servants in his Department and (ii) his Department's Board members who were senior civil servants was following the 2009 pay award. [320800]
Barbara Follett: The following table sets out salary details of senior civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government following the 2009 pay award broken down into £5,000 bands.
| Within the below salary range | |
Of these senior civil servants eight were board members in 2009, and salary details of these are set out in the following table broken down into £5,000 bands.
| Within the below salary range | |
| n/a = Not applicable. | |
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many senior civil servants there were in his Department at the time of the 2009 pay award; how many of them received a pay award excluding any bonuses; what the (a) lowest, (b) highest, (c) mean, (d) median and (e) mode pay award was; and how many such officials (i) received a fully consolidated increase in salary and (ii) received a pay award but no increase in salary. [320801]
Barbara Follett: At the time of the 2009 pay award 134 senior civil servants were included in the annual pay assessment for the main Communities and Local Government Department. Of these, 112 received a fully consolidated increase in salary and one received a non-consolidated pay award but no increase in salary.
The following table sets out the increases in salary of the senior civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government following the 2009 pay award, broken down into £5,000 bands.
| Within the range | |
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Neill) of 12 October 2009, Official Report, columns 312-3W, on departmental pay, what contractual arrangements led to the payment of a non-consolidated sum to Mr. Falvey. [322710]
Barbara Follett: The Department does not release information about individual employee's contractual arrangements.
Homelessness: Young People
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans his Department has to increase support for young homeless people seeking permanent accommodation; and if he will make a statement. [307019]
Mr. Ian Austin: Government have recently provided £30 million capital funding over three years from Communities and Local Government that will provide up to 500 new places in Foyers and specialist supported housing through the National Affordable Housing Programme.
Since September the following allocations have been made:
| Client group | Grant (£) | Units |
In addition local authorities provide a broad range of assistance and support for all ages which young people will also benefit from.
The Supporting People programme 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. Data relating to the supply of and spend on Supporting People housing related support services are collected retrospectively. The following table shows the national spend, per primary client group, for the year 2007-08 for the three 'young person' client groups reportable for Supporting People.
| Supporting People spend on the three Young Person client groups | |
| 2007-08 spend (£) | |
Housing: Sustainable Development
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent assessment he has made of progress in the provision of affordable sustainable homes; and whether his Department was represented at the Ecobuild exhibition and conference held in London in March 2010. [322554]
John Healey: I receive regular reports on the performance of the Homes and Communities Agency programmes which promote affordable sustainable homes. For example, in 2008-09, funding was allocated through the National Affordable Housing programme to support over 50,000 homes being built to level 3 or above of the code for sustainable homes. Ninety per cent. of proposals I've approved under this year's Local Authority New Build programme are at code level 4. The Social Housing Energy Saving programme is delivering cavity wall insulation in an estimated 108,000 homes.
The Department had a stand at the Ecobuild conference and exhibition held in March in London, as it has in previous years. I spoke at the conference and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State visited the event. Several CLG officials gave speeches, chaired sessions or were present at the Department's stand to answer questions from visitors to the event.
Non-Domestic Rates
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the combined rateable value of hereditaments in each local authority area is on the (a) 2005 and (b) draft 2010 Rating List. [312098]
Barbara Follett [holding answer 20 January 2010]: I have placed in the Library of the House a table showing the total rateable value for all hereditaments in Local List for England broken down by billing authority on the 2005 and the draft 2010 Rating Lists as at 2 November 2009. These data are consistent with the statistical release titled: "Non-domestic rateable values: 2010 Local Rating Lists-England and Wales", published on 18 December 2009. A copy of this statistical release is available at the following link:
The rateable values have been rounded to the nearest £1,000.
The five-yearly business rates revaluations make sure each business pays its fair contribution and no more by ensuring the share of the national rates bill paid by any one business reflects changes over time in the value of their property relative to others. The 2010 revaluation will not raise a single extra penny for Government.
Over 1 million properties will see their business rate liabilities come down as a result of revaluation. The Government intend to put in place a £2 billion relief scheme to limit the impact on the minority with bill increases, which in 2010-11 will ensure no business property sees its rates bill increase by more than 11 per cent. as a result of the revaluation, with maximum increases capped at just 3.5 per cent. for small properties. That is on top of the wider support available to help ease business pressures including discounted rate bills for small businesses and deferring tax payments.
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