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33137

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	17/01/2014
	date	15/01/2014
	date tabled	15/01/2014
	ddp created	15/01/2014 22:50:44
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:09:44
	answering body	HM Treasury
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	183466
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	06/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) laundering plants and (b) millions of litres of fuel were seized in the UK by HM Revenue and Customs in each of the last 10 years.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	East Antrim
	tabling member printed	Sammy Wilson
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 183466
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	183466
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	Ordinary
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p>Figures are only available for the years 2010-11 and onwards. The number of laundering plants and millions of litres of fuel seized in those years was as follows.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Laundering Plants</p></td><td><p>Fuel (millions litres)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>23 (20 NI 3 GB)</p></td><td><p>2.74</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>29 (NI figure only)</p></td><td><p>2.44</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13 to Dec 13</p></td><td><p>26 (22 NI 4 GB)</p></td><td><p>2.63</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>HMRC fights fraud on a wide range of fronts, from special units performing thousands of roadside checks to raiding laundering plants. HMRC has also recently concluded the evaluation of a possible new marker for rebated fuel, which will make it harder to launder marked fuel and sell it at a profit.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC uses several avenues to tackle fraud: criminal prosecution, civil action (such as seizing fuel or pumps), civil penalties and strong regulatory controls.</p><p> </p><p> </p> question first answered 06/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	1593 label Biography information for Sammy Wilson
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	1593 label Biography information for Sammy Wilson

33630

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	23/01/2014
	date	16/01/2014
	date tabled	16/01/2014
	ddp created	16/01/2014 20:50:41
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:13:38
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	183915
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	13/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on plans to increase house building by 2030.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Redditch
	tabling member printed	Karen Lumley
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 183915
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	183915
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	NamedDay
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p><em>[Holding Reply: Thursday 23 January 2014]</em></p><p>The Government does not have a Whitehall building target. The last Administration had a state target to increase house building to 240,000 dwellings a year, yet house building then fell to its lowest peacetime rate since the 1920s.</p><p>By contrast, the Coalition Government has put in place a range of measures to get Britain building again, fix the broken housing market and help hard-working people get the home they want.</p><p>Action taken includes wide-ranging planning reform through National Planning Policy Framework; new incentives to deliver housing growth through the New Homes Bonus; as well as the Government's broader long-term economic plan to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration and keep interest rates down. I would note:</p><p>· We have already delivered 420,000 new homes since 2010.</p><p>· New orders in residential construction have risen to their highest level since 2007 according to the Office for National Statistics;</p><p>· Housing starts are at their highest since 2007 according to DCLG figures;</p><p>· The number of first time buyers is at its highest since 2007 according to the Council for Mortgage Lenders;</p><p>· Repossessions are at their lowest since 2007, according to the Council for Mortgage Lenders; and</p><p>· New home registrations rose by 30 per cent in 2013 in England, the highest since 2007, and are up 60 per cent in London, according to the NHBC.</p><p>In relation to specific programmes:</p><p><em>Affordable housing</em></p><p>170,000 affordable homes have been delivered in England since April 2010.</p><p>Our Affordable Homes Programme will deliver 170,000 homes over the current spending review period (2011-2015) levering in £19.5 billion of public and private funding. We have announced a new ‘Affordable Rent to Buy' scheme which will deliver affordable homes through a recoverable fund. We have also published details of a new Affordable Homes Programme for the next spending period, which will lever in up to £23 billion in public and private funding to deliver 165,000 homes from 2015 to 2018.</p><p>The Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme is worth up to £3.5 billion (with further lending capacity held in reserve according to demand) and supported by up to £450 million grant funding in England. Up to 30,000 additional affordable homes will be underway by December 2017. Affordable Housing Finance Plc was awarded the licence for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme in June 2013. The first eight housing associations to be approved to borrow through the scheme were announced in January 2014, who will raise over £400 million of debt to facilitate the delivery of over 4,000 new affordable homes. We also announced a European Investment Bank loan facility worth £500 million. More borrowers will follow.</p><p>The Right to Buy Scheme, allowing eligible social tenants to buy their homes at a discount has achieved almost 24,000 sales since April 2010, with the majority (16,200) since we reinvigorated the scheme in 2012. A total of 2,845 council properties were sold between October and December last year, a 42 per cent increase on the same period in 2012. The reinvigorated Right to Buy ensures, for the first time, that the receipts from the additional sales, that is those over what was forecast prior to the change, are reinvested in helping to fund new homes for affordable rent. So far, £300 million has been generated from additional sales and already over 2,000 homes have been started on site or acquired since April 2012.</p><p><em>Home ownership schemes (Help to Buy)</em></p><p>Since April 2013, the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme has offered buyers a 20 per cent equity loan that can be used towards the cost of buying a new build homes, allowing people to buy with a 5 per cent deposit. There were over 30,000 reservations and 19,394 completed loans across England by the end of March 2014, with funding for up to 74,000 sales by March 2016. Alongside this, the Help to Buy: NewBuy scheme has so far supported a further 5,173 households purchase new build homes by the end of March 2014. The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme was extended through the 2014 Budget announcement to 2020 to help 120,000 more households purchase a new build home.</p><p>The FirstBuy scheme was announced in the Budget 2011 to help support 10,000 first time buyers on the property ladder. The scheme was replaced in April 2013 with Help to Buy. There were 11,590 FirstBuy sales to the end of March 2014.</p><p>Since the end of last year, the Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee scheme is providing up to £12 billion of Government guarantees to support people to buy with a 5 per cent deposit, and over 2,500 homes have so far (by the end of January 2014) been brought through this route, and has helped lower interest rates for those with smaller deposits. The three Help to Buy schemes complement each other, and their success can be taken in the whole.</p><p><em>Private rented sector</em></p><p>The £1 billion Build to Rent programme, which provides development phase finance, is supporting new high quality development purpose built for private rent and is on track to create up to 10,000 new homes. The programme received £1.4 billion of bids under Round One, which is expected to support 15 developments which will provide over 2,600 homes across England in locations which include Durham, Liverpool, Manchester and London. Five contracts to the combined value of over £74.5 million have already been agreed which will deliver over 1,000 new homes for private rent; construction has already started in Southampton (Centenary Quay) and Manchester (Three Towers); more contracts will follow.</p><p>Bidding for Round Two of the Build to Rent Fund was significantly oversubscribed receiving 126 bids to the value of around £3 billion. 36 projects on the shortlist from Round Two are now going through a competitive due diligence process, with successful bids receiving funding to deliver thousands of new homes. A list of all shortlisted bids has been placed in the Library of the House. The shortlist is over-programmed, meaning not all shortlisted projects will receive funding. Shortlisting and due diligence are the first stages of the Build to Rent approval process. The Homes and Communities Agency will continue to work with bidders until exchange of contracts in order to ensure value for money for taxpayers.</p><p>In addition to direct funding, the Government's Private Rented Sector Taskforce is continuing to build the private rented sector as an investment market and have identified £10 billion of domestic and foreign investment available in the private rented sector.</p><p>The Private Rented Sector Guarantees scheme will provide a government guarantee for up to £3.5 billion debt (with further lending capacity held in reserve according to demand) for borrowers investing in new build private rented sector homes across the UK. The guarantees will use the UK Government's hard earned fiscal credibility to help lower the cost of borrowing and incentivise investment in the sector. DCLG is open for business to issue direct guarantees and is actively discussing potential applications with a number of borrowers looking to invest in large scale developments. On 18 March, we also launched a procurement inviting bids from the market to be our delivery partner for Private Rented Sector Housing Debt Guarantees, with the aim of maximizing take up of guarantees including for small and medium enterprises. My Department will be evaluating bids to perform the role in due course.</p><p><em>Infrastructure and development finance</em></p><p>The Get Britain Building investment fund has been provided over £500 million of finance to unlock smaller stalled sites. As at February 2014, it has helped kick start 11,893 new homes on stalled sites.</p><p>The Growing Places Fund is providing £770 million to deliver the infrastructure needed to unlock stalled schemes that will promoted economic growth, create jobs and build homes. The fund has been fully allocated to Local Enterprise Partnerships and the devolved administrations to fund local projects. Progress updates in June 2013 reported that £652 million of capital funding had been allocated to 305 projects across England. Local Enterprise Partnerships expect these projects to create 4,900 businesses, 94,000 jobs and 27,000 houses. A further update will be published in due course.</p><p>The £474 million Local Infrastructure Fund is helping to unlock large scale housing developments. To date, we have unlocked 15 sites capable of delivering almost 80,000 homes through a combination of financial and non-financial support. We are currently working to unlock a further 13 stalled schemes to deliver up to 40,000 new homes. In addition to the capital investment, we have made available £13 million of capacity funding to support local authorities in fulfilling their local housing ambitions.</p><p>The 2013 Autumn Statement also announced a further £1 billion to unlock development on large housing sites and a Prospectus inviting bids was published on 14 April. During the Easter Recess, we also published the Local Growth Fund (Housing Infrastructure) prospectus. This sets out the detail on how to access the £50 million part of the Local Growth Fund in 2015-16. It is designed to help speed up and restart housing developments between 250 and 1,499 units that have slowed down or stalled.</p><p>The 2014 Budget announced further funding for driving up housing supply including a £525 million Builders Finance Fund to provide development finance for small sites to support the construction of 15,000 new homes; the prospectus has also recently been published.</p><p>The Budget announced the intention to create an Urban Development Corporation for the Ebbsfleet area to accelerate the construction of a garden-city style development which will unlock up to 15,000 homes – with up to £200 million capital being made available. We have also published a prospectus to support further locally-led garden cities.</p><p>A new Estate Regeneration Fund of £150 million of recoverable investment will help kick start and accelerate the regeneration of some of our most deprived estates. And we will work with the Greater London Authority to support the regeneration of Brent Cross and unlock 11,000 homes at Barking Riverside.</p><p>We have also taken steps to scale back economically unrealistic Section 106 agreements, such as from the last Administration's housing bubble, which result in no housing development, no regeneration and no community benefits.</p><p><em>Self-build</em></p><p>The £30 million investment fund for Custom Build Homes is currently assessing loan funding of £22.6 million with the potential to deliver 270 units. At the 2014 Budget, we announced that the Government will consult on a new ‘Right to Build' to give self builders a right to a plot from councils, a new £150 million investment fund to help provide up to 10,000 service plots, and announced will we look to extend Help to Buy equity to custom build. We have also exempted self-build from the Community Infrastructure Levy and we are consulting on a similar policy change for Section 106 tariffs.</p><p><em>Empty homes</em></p><p>This Government has provided £235 million of funding which aims to bring up to 12,000 homes back into use by March 2015. This is part of a wider package of measures to get empty homes and empty buildings back into productive use, in contrast to the last Administration's policy of wholesale demolition. The numbers of empty properties in England have fallen to a 10-year low, and the number of long-term vacant properties has fallen by around a third since 2009.</p><p><em>Public sector land</em></p><p>The Public Sector Land Programme has identified land with capacity for over 100,000 homes which we aim to release to the private sector by March 2015. At the end of December 2013, we had released land capable of delivering 68,000 homes to be built.</p><p>Through the Strategic Land and Property Review we have identified scope to generate £5 billion of receipts from government land and property between 2015 and 2020. This will put land and property into the hands of those who can exploit them for commercial purposes – creating opportunities for housing and economic development.</p><p>This was part of a series of measures to support brownfield development, as outlined in more detail in the answer of 3 April 2014, <em>Official Report</em>, Column 780W.</p><p>There is more to do, but I hope this illustrates how this Government's long-term economic plan is helping build more houses, help people move on and up the housing ladder and clean up the mess left by the last Administration.</p><p> </p> question first answered 13/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	4023 label Biography information for Karen Lumley
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	4023 label Biography information for Karen Lumley

33663

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	21/01/2014
	date	16/01/2014
	date tabled	16/01/2014
	ddp created	16/01/2014 20:50:44
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:13:58
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	183913
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	07/04/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his Department's 10 largest contracts let since the financial year 2010-11 are; what savings have been made in such contracts; what the level of overspend or underspend was in each such contract; and what steps his Department has taken to monitor the performance of each supplier of such contract following the contract award.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Nottingham East
	tabling member printed	Chris Leslie
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 183913
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	183913
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	NamedDay
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p> </p><p>The Ministry of Justice has taken a number of steps to improve commercial capability across the department. We regularly review suppliers' performance against key performance indicators and have recently embarked on a programme aimed at introducing a more robust approach to contract management, to ensure that contracts deliver best possible value for the taxpayer.</p><p> </p><p>The table below features the ten largest contracts let by the Ministry of Justice since the financial year 2010/11, and provides details of savings and of any under- or overspend in each financial year.</p> question first answered 07/04/2014 12:00:00
	creator	422 label Biography information for Mr Chris Leslie
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	422 label Biography information for Mr Chris Leslie

34100

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	23/01/2014
	date	21/01/2014
	date tabled	21/01/2014
	ddp created	21/01/2014 23:20:30
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:17:55
	answering body	Ministry of Defence
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	11
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	184212
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	01/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's Costing and Cost Management Strategy.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
	tabling member printed	Nicholas Soames
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 184212
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	184212
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	Ordinary
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p>Costing and Cost Management Strategy is an internal Ministry of Defence document and is not for external publication.</p> question first answered 01/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

34369

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	24/01/2014
	date	22/01/2014
	date tabled	22/01/2014
	ddp created	22/01/2014 23:40:40
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:20:13
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	184627
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	14/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average proportion of market rent of all affordable housing is in each London borough.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Tooting
	tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 184627
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	184627
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	Ordinary
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p>I have placed in the Library of the House, a table showing affordable and social rents as a proportion of market rents, for each London borough.</p><p>The affordable rent model allows for more new affordable housing to be delivered with lower levels of taxpayer capital subsidy and by levering in more private investment. The programme is helping deliver £15 billion of private investment in new affordable housing over the current spending review, alongside £4.5 billion of public investment. Social rent and affordable rent go hand in hand; both help provide accommodation for those on low incomes.</p><p>As the National Audit Office has observed: “the Department selected the best delivery model open to it for the funds it had available” and “the Department has so far achieved its policy objective to maximise the number of homes delivered within the available grant funding” (National Audit Office, “Financial viability of the social housing sector: introducing the Affordable Homes Programme”, 4 July 2012, <em>HC465,</em> pp.6-7).</p><p>I note in his recent Fabian Society pamphlet, the rt. hon. Member has complained that affordable rent would result in rents of 80 per cent of market rents in London. Whilst it varies by borough, as the table shows, for example, affordable rent levels are 38 per cent of average local market rents in Camden, 48 per cent in Islington, 54 per cent in Southwark and 35 per cent in Westminster, reflecting local circumstances.</p><p>I also observe that the housing policy announced at the Labour Party Conference in October 2012 also endorsed the use of affordable rents to build new homes; albeit this point is frequently lost on many Labour hon. Members who proceed to attack the basic principle of affordable rent in allowing more new affordable homes to be built using taxpayer capital subsidy.</p><p> </p> question first answered 14/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

34374

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	27/01/2014
	date	22/01/2014
	date tabled	22/01/2014
	ddp created	22/01/2014 23:40:41
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:20:17
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	184755
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	13/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families were based in temporary accommodation in (a) Chelmsford constituency and (b) Essex in each quarter of the last five years.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Chelmsford
	tabling member printed	Mr Simon Burns
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 184755
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	184755
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	NamedDay
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p><em>[Holding Reply: Monday 27 January 2014]</em></p><p>The Department does not collect constituency level data. A table has been placed in the Library of the House with data for Chelmsford City Council and Essex. To assist my rt. hon. Friend, I have provided quarterly data back for the last ten years; the table illustrates how there are fewer households in temporary accommodation than the average under the last Administration.</p><p>This Government has retained a strong homelessness safety net protected in law, supported by £470 million in the current Spending Review period to prevent and tackle homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions. We are seeing this investment making an impact with households now spending on average 7 months less in temporary accommodation than at the start of 2010.</p><p>We have also made some changes to the rules under the Localism Act to enable local authorities to end the main homelessness duty by arranging an offer of suitable accommodation in the private rented sector. This means households are likely to spend less time in temporary accommodation waiting for social housing to become available.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> question first answered 13/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	46 label Biography information for Sir Simon Burns
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	46 label Biography information for Sir Simon Burns

34375

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	24/01/2014
	date	22/01/2014
	date tabled	22/01/2014
	ddp created	22/01/2014 23:40:41
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:20:18
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	184631
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	09/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families were placed in temporary accommodation in each London borough in each of the last five years.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Tooting
	tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 184631
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	184631
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	Ordinary
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p>I refer the rt. hon. Member to Live Table 784 available on my Department's website at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness</a></p><p>The numbers of households in temporary accommodation in London are still well belowthe level they were at their peak, under the previous Administration, when they hit more than 63,800. Councils have a responsibility to move homeless households into settled accommodation as quickly as possible and we made common sense changes to the law to enable them to use suitable private rented homes. Indeed, the average stay in temporary accommodation in England has been reduced from 20 months at the beginning of 2010 to 14 months now.</p><p>We have also seen a 42% reduction in the numbers of families with children in Bed and Breakfast for more than six weeks on this time last year across the country. The seven local authorities that we funded to tackle families in Bed and Breakfast have made significant progress achieving an overall reduction of 96% since the funding began.</p><p> </p><p> </p> question first answered 09/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

35175

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	30/01/2014
	date	27/01/2014
	date tabled	27/01/2014
	ddp created	27/01/2014 23:10:27
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:27:26
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	185294
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	12/05/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received on the decision to withdraw the local welfare provision grant in 2015-16; and what consultation he undertook prior to making that decision.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Barrow and Furness
	tabling member printed	John Woodcock
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 185294
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	185294
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	NamedDay
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p><em>[Holding Reply: Thursday 30 January 2014]</em></p><p>DCLG Ministers and officials talk regularly to elected members and officers of local authorities about a range of issues.</p><p>The nationally run Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans were poorly targeted and failed to help those most in need. So, in 2012 as part of wider welfare reform, the Department for Work and Pensions abolished these national discretionary schemes and transferred responsibility to local authorities so they could deliver and tailor new local support as part of their existing services to their communities.</p><p>Councils can continue to provide support to those in their community who face financial difficulties or who find themselves in unavoidable circumstances, but there is no requirement to replicate the previous approach adopted by central government.</p><p>In contrast to a centralised grant system that was poorly targeted, under the Department for Work and Pensions' reforms, councils can now choose how best to support local welfare needs within their areas – what is right for, say, Barrow and Furness may not be for other authorities. Some councils have already chosen to wind down their dedicated schemes following underspends.</p><p>In the next Spending Round period, from April 2015, central government continues to provide support to local authorities through general funds as part of the Coalition Government's commitment to reducing ring-fencing and ending top-down Whitehall control.</p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions provided a separate fund for 2013-2015 and are carrying out a review of the provision to date.</p><p> </p><p> </p> question first answered 12/05/2014 12:00:00
	creator	3917 label Biography information for Lord Walney
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	3917 label Biography information for Lord Walney

35852

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	03/02/2014
	date	29/01/2014
	date tabled	29/01/2014
	ddp created	29/01/2014 23:50:52
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:33:44
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	185721
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	02/04/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many outstanding confiscation orders were written off in each year since 2010.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	Tooting
	tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 185721
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	185721
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	NamedDay
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p> </p><p>The volume of confiscation orders reduced or written off from 2010 to 2013 is recorded in Table A below, while the value of amounts reduced or written off is recorded in Table B.</p><p><strong>Table A</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="6"><p>Volume of Confiscation Orders Written Off</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Category</p></td><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>Total</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>DTOA Default Served</p></td><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>12</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Inadequacy</p></td><td><p>202</p></td><td><p>202</p></td><td><p>163</p></td><td><p>185</p></td><td><p>752</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>POCA s24 Discharge</p></td><td><p>43</p></td><td><p>61</p></td><td><p>42</p></td><td><p>29</p></td><td><p>175</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>POCA s25 Discharge</p></td><td><p>124</p></td><td><p>72</p></td><td><p>37</p></td><td><p>42</p></td><td><p>275</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Reconsideration of Available Assets</p></td><td><p>401</p></td><td><p>474</p></td><td><p>567</p></td><td><p>521</p></td><td><p>1,963</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Grand Total</p></td><td><p>774</p></td><td><p>811</p></td><td><p>813</p></td><td><p>779</p></td><td><p>3,177</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Table B</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="6"><p>Value of Confiscation Orders Written Off</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Category</p></td><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>Total</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>DTOA Default Served</p></td><td><p>£47,101</p></td><td><p>£882,064</p></td><td><p>£1,162,397</p></td><td><p>£22,082</p></td><td><p>£2,113,644</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Inadequacy</p></td><td><p>£5,707,742</p></td><td><p>£8,924,637</p></td><td><p>£3,673,845</p></td><td><p>£11,815,275</p></td><td><p>£30,121,499</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>POCA s24 Discharge</p></td><td><p>£70,030</p></td><td><p>£780,328</p></td><td><p>£335,969</p></td><td><p>£483,443</p></td><td><p>£1,669,770</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>POCA s25 Discharge</p></td><td><p>£1,479</p></td><td><p>£980</p></td><td><p>£797</p></td><td><p>£1,179</p></td><td><p>£4,435</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Reconsideration of Available Assets</p></td><td><p>£8,019,707</p></td><td><p>£21,235,494</p></td><td><p>£16,739,659</p></td><td><p>£20,158,107</p></td><td><p>£66,152,967</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Grand Total</p></td><td><p>£13,846,059</p></td><td><p>£31,823,503</p></td><td><p>£21,912,667</p></td><td><p>£32,480,086</p></td><td><p>£100,062,315</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Below are explanations of the limited ways an outstanding confiscation order can be reduced or written off.</p><p><strong>Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 (DTOA) Default Served</strong> – Serving the default sentence of up to 10 years for non payment of a confiscation order under this pre-Proceeds Of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) legislation cancels the amount outstanding in full</p><p><strong>Inadequacy </strong>– Under pre-POCA legislation the defendant can make an application to the High Court, for a fee of £350, to apply for a Certificate of Inadequacy (COI) to reduce the order amount where assets have not achieved the value assessed at the confiscation hearing.</p><p><strong>POCA s24 Discharge – </strong>The Enforcement Authority can apply to the Crown Court to reduce amounts up to £1,000 where they are satisfied the value of the asset has not met the value assessed at the confiscation hearing. The most likely cause for this is fluctuations in foreign currency.</p><p><strong>POCA s25 Discharge – </strong>The Enforcement Authority can apply to the Crown Court to discharge amounts up to £50, where there is little prospect of recovering the small amount outstanding or it is no longer cost effective to do so.</p><p><strong>Reconsideration of Available Assets</strong> - Under POCA legislation the defendant can make an application to the Crown Court, to apply for a Variation Order to reduce the order amount where assets have not achieved the value assessed at the confiscation hearing. Unlike a pre-POCA COI application, no fee is payable.</p><p> </p><p>Confiscation orders are one of the key mechanisms available to the Government to deprive criminals of the proceeds of their crimes. The value of the order imposed, which is often very high, is based on the criminal benefit attributed to the crime and may, therefore, exceed the value of realisable assets that are known to the Court at the time of imposition. Crucially, an outstanding order stops the criminal benefitting from the proceeds of crime and ensures that, if the assets are discovered in the future, they can be seized.</p><p> </p><p>HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and other enforcement agencies take the issue of recovering criminal assets very seriously and are working to ensure that clamping down on defaulters is a continued priority nationwide.</p><p> </p><p>Although, as the Enforcement Authority, HMCTS owns the debt, it is not always the lead enforcement agency. HMCTS tends to lead on the high volume, low value orders. Prosecution agencies, including the CPS and the Serious Fraud Office, lead on enforcement where they have put Restraint Orders on the defendant's property to protect the asset, or where the professional expertise of an Enforcement Receiver will be required to enforce the confiscation order.</p><p> </p><p>All outstanding amounts are actively pursued using a range of enforcement tools open to us. A confiscation order is a life time order and only amounts up to £50 can be written off. Default sentences of up to 10 years in prison are activated for non payment. Serving the default sentence does not cancel the debt and we will continue to pursue the amount owed. Interest is added to the order balance outstanding at the rate of 8% per annum. The fact that interest accrues at such a high rate and amounts over £50 cannot be written off, contribute to the increasing level of debt. At the end of December 2013, the total amount outstanding was £1.47 billion, of which £372 million was interest alone. At the end of December 2013, including interest £24 million is owed by defendants who are deceased and a further £86 million is owed by defendants who have been deported. Even for those that are deported we still try to actively pursue the defendants assets held abroad, but we rely on the cooperation of overseas enforcement agencies, which is often not forthcoming. The Agencies responsible for enforcement are building better relationships with overseas authorities and engage specialist forensic teams to track down hidden assets.</p><p> </p><p>The amount defendants repaid from their criminal activity across all agencies reached an all time high during 2012/13, with a total of £133.1 million recovered. That represented a 7% increase on the £124.1 million recovered during 2011/12. The total amount recovered has increased for the last four consecutive years and once again we are on course to have another record breaking year this financial year. For the 2013/14 financial year, at the end of December 2013, £102.8 million had been recovered, which is an increase of 2% on the £100.5 million that was collected up to December 2012. Since 2008/09, when £98.8 Million was recovered, the amount collected from criminals has increased by 35%.</p><p> </p><p>HMCTS is seeking a commercial partner to help increase collections, reduce enforcement costs and importantly, ensure more criminals pay. A new national system has been implemented to manage the collection of fixed penalty notices, with all of the Police Forces having transferred to the new platform by June 2013.The continuing improvement the Agencies are making combined with our future plans will ensure that more criminals pay and that taxpayers get better value for money.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> question first answered 02/04/2014 12:00:00
	creator	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

35983

	human indexable
	published
	registered interest
	answer date	03/02/2014
	date	30/01/2014
	date tabled	30/01/2014
	ddp created	30/01/2014 21:00:37
	ddp modified	07/02/2015 01:34:52
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	question status	Tabled
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name
	house id	1
	identifier	185957
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	parliament number	55
	question first answered	03/04/2014 12:00:00
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support local planning authorities in (a) improving the viability of brownfield sites and (b) restarting stalled developments.
	session	2013/14
	session number	3
	tabling member constituency	York Outer
	tabling member printed	Julian Sturdy
	title	House of Commons Tabled Parliamentary Question 2013/14 185957
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	185957
	version	1
	written parliamentary question type	Ordinary
	answer	answer is ministerial correction answer text <p> </p><p><em>Kick-starting stalled developments</em></p><p>This Government has introduced a series of measures to support stalled house building. These include:</p><p>· The Get Britain Building investment fund, providing over £500 million of finance which has so far helped start 11,893 new homes on stalled sites (as of February 2014).</p><p>· The Growing Places Fund is providing £770 million to deliver the infrastructure needed to unlock stalled schemes that will promote economic growth, create jobs and build homes. The fund has been fully allocated to Local Enterprise Partnerships and the devolved administrations to fund local projects.</p><p>· The £474 million Local Infrastructure Fund investment fund is supporting the delivery of upfront infrastructure for locally-supported, large scale housing sites and commercial development; it also provides capacity funding and brokerage support to local authorities to help them progress major schemes through the planning process. Nearly 80,000 homes have been unlocked on fifteen different sites. A further thirteen schemes are currently being assessed for investment, which we believe have the potential to deliver nearly 40,000 homes.</p><p>· The Autumn Statement committed an additional £1 billion of Local Infrastructure Fund funding to unlock locally-led housing schemes capable of delivering up to a further 250,000 new homes, and a second round prospectus will be published in due course.</p><p>· The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 enables developers with any Section 106 agreement to apply for a review of the affordable housing component to ensure development is not being made unviable by unrealistic requirements. Such unviable Section 106 agreements result in no development, no regeneration and no community benefits: a sensible review can result in more housing and more affordable housing.</p><p>· As the housing market has improved, we have ended the temporary measure (introduced by the last Administration) which allowed developers to roll forward their planning permissions; this ending of the measure will increase the incentive for developers to start on site before permission expires.</p><p>· We are also seeking to tackle the inappropriate use of planning conditions and speed up the process of gaining non-planning consents.</p><p>· The Budget announced a £525 million Builders' Finance Fund to assist small and medium sized developers to access finance to support the delivery of housing schemes of between 15 and 250 units, helping kick-start stalled sites and deliver around 15,000 units over four years.</p><p><em>Supporting development on brownfield land</em></p><p>Freeing up brownfield land for regeneration and development is a key priority for my department. Our actions include:</p><p>· We have amended planning regulations to make it easier to change the use of an existing building from commercial to residential use, retail to residential use and agricultural to residential use. Permitted development rights have been expanded, including for flats above shops and allowing for new temporary uses. The Budget announced our intention to further extend these flexibilities.</p><p>· The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that planning should encourage the effective use of land by re-using brownfield land provided that it is not of high environmental value, and that local councils can set locally appropriate targets for using brownfield land. We have also amended planning practice guidance to stress the importance of bringing brownfield land into use.</p><p>· We have abolished the last Government's Pathfinder programme which sought to demolish homes and instead we have focused on refurbishment and getting empty homes into use. We are investing £160 million specifically to bring empty homes back into use. The New Homes Bonus rewards long-term empty homes being brought back into use and we have given councils the flexibility to remove tax subsidies given to empty homes, and use the money to keep the overall rate of council tax down. The number of empty homes in England has fallen to its lowest rate ever according to the Empty Homes Agency.</p><p>· My Department has been supporting the Olympic legacy, driving renewal and regeneration in east London, replacing over 740 acres of polluted, low-grade industrial land and premises with new sports and community facilities, parks, homes, shops and transport infrastructure.</p><p>· We are working with the Mayor of London to unlock the construction of 11,000 new homes at Barking Riverside, and extend transport infrastructure.</p><p>· A new garden city will be delivered on brownfield land in Ebbsfleet, supported by an Urban Development Corporation and up to £200 million of public investment. The last Administration pledged in its 2003 Sustainable Communities Plan to regenerate Ebbsfleet but failed to deliver.</p><p>· The new Right to Contest builds on our existing Community Right to Reclaim Land, which lets communities ask that under-used or unused land owned by public bodies is brought back into beneficial use. This new Right applies to sites currently in use, but are not vital for operations. It gives businesses and members of the public an opportunity to challenge government on the best use of its estate.</p><p>· We have a comprehensive programme to sell surplus public sector land and property, freeing up taxpayers' money and providing land for new homes. As at the end of December we had released surplus government owned land with capacity for 68,000 homes to be built. We have strengthened the role of the Homes and Communities Agency through a targeted programme of transfers from other Government Departments and agencies. In addition, to ensure land is released efficiently, the Homes and Communities Agency will be Government's land disposal agency. This builds on the Homes and Communities Agency's expertise and experience of complex land remediation and disposals as well as their close relationships with local planning authorities.</p><p>· Through the Strategic Land and Property Review we have identified scope to generate £5 billion of receipts from government land and property between 2015 and 2020. This will put land and property into the hands of those who can exploit them for commercial purposes – creating opportunities for housing and economic development.</p><p>· Changes to Community Infrastructure Levy rules now provide an increased incentive for brownfield development, and extended exemptions for empty buildings being brought back into. We have recently published a consultation paper to lift Section 106 burdens on vacant buildings being returned to use.</p><p>· The Budget announced an Estate Regeneration fund which will provide £150 million to help kick start and accelerate the regeneration of housing estates.</p><p>I hope this outlines the decisive action that this Government is taking.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> question first answered 03/04/2014 12:00:00
	creator	4079 label Biography information for Julian Sturdy
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	4079 label Biography information for Julian Sturdy