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78376

registered interest
date	16/07/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	EU Grants and Loans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, column 630W, on EU grants and loans, how much and what proportion of 2007 to 2013 European Regional Development Fund monies allocated to the UK with match-funding in place have been (a) contractually committed and (b) drawn down in (i) each English region and (ii) in total to date.
tabling member constituency	Streatham
tabling member printed	Mr Chuka Umunna
uin	206317
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The information requested is provided in the attached table (1). The “contractually committed” figures are up to 30 September 2014. All contractually committed funding has had match funding identified, so no separate figures are shown for this.</p><p>Across the programme, an average of 100% of the programme is now contractually committed. All spending of taxpayers’ money must ensure value for money; and money should not be spent on poor quality projects just for the sake of it. Spending must also comply with complex and bureaucratic EU rules, or else risk “financial corrections” down the line.</p><p>Where the contractually committed figure is slightly less than the total allocation, this reflects the restrictive, bureaucratic rules associated with the whole programme, and the lack of flexibility in the rules.</p><p>To place this in context, I attach with this answer a table (2) showing the allocations in the 2000-06 programme under the last Labour Government: only 93% of the allocation was ever committed, leaving £392 million of uncommitted resources; of which £48 million was uncommitted in the West Midlands Objective 2 area, £64 million uncommitted in the North West Objective 2 area, and £38 million uncommitted in the Yorkshire and the Humber Objective 2 area.</p><p>In this context, despite the complexities, the 2007-13 programme has been far better administered under this Government than the 2000-06 programme under the last Administration.</p><p>The European Regional Development Fund is a circular programme. UK taxpayers’ money is given to the European Union budget. Under the Fund, a local project receives a contract, spends money and then claims from DCLG. DCLG then claims funds back from the European Commission. The whole process goes through a complex auditing process involving DCLG auditors and then European Union auditors. After a period of time, the majority of unspent funding is returned to the UK Government by the European Commission. We continue to have concerns over the bureaucratic and time consuming nature of the processes involved in the programme, as a consequence of rules imposed by the European Commission.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt attachment 1 file name 206317 Umunna - Table 1.docx title Table 1 2 file name 206317 Umunna - Table 2.pdf title Table 2 question first answered 26/11/2014 16:11:42 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	4128 label Biography information for Chuka Umunna

78388

registered interest
date	16/07/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Fire Services: Pensions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential liability to Government should the take-up rate in the proposed 2015 firefighters' pension scheme be lower than anticipated.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Lyn Brown
uin	206187
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/08/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The Government is committed to providing good quality public service pension schemes and encouraging saving for retirement. Firefighters will continue to get one of the most generous public service pensions available – over £19,000 at age 60 after a full career (based on a firefighters’ salary of £29,000). Many firefighters who transfer to the firefighters’ pension scheme 2015 will see a reduction in their employee contribution rate of around 2 percentage points in 2015-16.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>If a firefighter opts out of the pension scheme, this reduces the long term liability for the taxpayer but increases the short term top-up grant paid by the Department to fund the shortfall in scheme income. Overall, this would be likely to result in a long-term net saving for taxpayers, but we have not undertaken the actuarial work to calculate a precise assessment. This is because we would encourage firefighters to remain in the scheme, given it remains an extremely good defined benefit scheme – an equivalent private pension pot would need over half a million pounds of funding and require firefighters to contribute twice as much.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 21/08/2014 12:08:26 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

77888

registered interest
date	15/07/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Fire Services: Pensions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the administration costs of the proposed 2015 firefighters' pension scheme.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Lyn Brown
uin	205713
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The Firefighters’ Pension Schemes are administered locally by individual fire and rescue authorities. No assessment has been made of the administrative costs of the schemes by this Department.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt grouped question UIN 205754 question first answered 22/07/2014 13:40:14 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

77047

registered interest
date	10/07/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Coalfields Regeneration Trust
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been awarded to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	205109
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>In 2010, the previous Administration initiated a review of coalfields regeneration; this was completed in September 2010 and the Government’s response was published in March 2011 – as summarised in the Written Ministerial Statement by my rt. hon. Friend, the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), on 10 March 2011, <em>Official Report</em>, Column 74WS. This outlined a four year programme to make the Trust self-financing, and a tapered level of funding. As laid out in that approach, funding to the Trust was £17.7 million in 2010-11, £16 million in 2011-12, £14 million in 2012-13, £12 million in 2013-14 and will be £10 million in 2014-15.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In line with the strategy, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust will no longer receive financial support from DCLG after March 2015, but they have been allowed to invest grant in assets, whilst still adhering to their core objectives of supporting coalfields communities to enable them to generate an income from 2015 onwards. The Trust now has a strong portfolio of investment and an opportunity to concentrate on the areas where they add value.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Homes and Communities Agency’s Coalfields Programme has invested over £660 million in coalfields project. The land assets associated with Coalfields Projects are expected to form part of the Homes and Communities Agency’s upcoming programme to dispose of Public Sector Land.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>DCLG’s Coalfields Funds have also been investing in innovative small and medium firms in deprived former coalfields areas and will continue to do so until mid-2016, as per the June 2009 contractual agreement with the Coalfields Growth Fund partnership. As of 30 June 2014 the Funds have invested £16.9 million in total.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br></p><p>More broadly, the Government’s approach is to provide local leaders, residents and businesses with the powers, flexibilities, options and incentives to put them in the driving seat to regenerate their area, strengthen their local economy, and improve their opportunities.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As part of its long-term economic plan to secure Britain’s future, the Government has agreed a series of Growth Deals with businesses and local authorities across England which will provide support for local businesses to train young people, create thousands of new jobs, build thousands of new homes and start hundreds of infrastructure projects; including transport improvements and superfast broadband networks. There is a real opportunity for the Local Enterprise Partnerships which cover former coalfield areas to take a major role in taking forward regeneration locally.</p><p> </p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt grouped question UIN 205254 question first answered 24/09/2014 15:29:40 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

77053

registered interest
date	10/07/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Coalfields Regeneration Trust
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will make an assessment of the implications for its policies of the conclusions and recommendations of the recent report from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust entitled The State of the Coalfields; and whether his Department provides or plans to provide funding for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	205254
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>In 2010, the previous Administration initiated a review of coalfields regeneration; this was completed in September 2010 and the Government’s response was published in March 2011 – as summarised in the Written Ministerial Statement by my rt. hon. Friend, the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), on 10 March 2011, <em>Official Report</em>, Column 74WS. This outlined a four year programme to make the Trust self-financing, and a tapered level of funding. As laid out in that approach, funding to the Trust was £17.7 million in 2010-11, £16 million in 2011-12, £14 million in 2012-13, £12 million in 2013-14 and will be £10 million in 2014-15.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In line with the strategy, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust will no longer receive financial support from DCLG after March 2015, but they have been allowed to invest grant in assets, whilst still adhering to their core objectives of supporting coalfields communities to enable them to generate an income from 2015 onwards. The Trust now has a strong portfolio of investment and an opportunity to concentrate on the areas where they add value.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Homes and Communities Agency’s Coalfields Programme has invested over £660 million in coalfields project. The land assets associated with Coalfields Projects are expected to form part of the Homes and Communities Agency’s upcoming programme to dispose of Public Sector Land.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>DCLG’s Coalfields Funds have also been investing in innovative small and medium firms in deprived former coalfields areas and will continue to do so until mid-2016, as per the June 2009 contractual agreement with the Coalfields Growth Fund partnership. As of 30 June 2014 the Funds have invested £16.9 million in total.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br></p><p>More broadly, the Government’s approach is to provide local leaders, residents and businesses with the powers, flexibilities, options and incentives to put them in the driving seat to regenerate their area, strengthen their local economy, and improve their opportunities.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As part of its long-term economic plan to secure Britain’s future, the Government has agreed a series of Growth Deals with businesses and local authorities across England which will provide support for local businesses to train young people, create thousands of new jobs, build thousands of new homes and start hundreds of infrastructure projects; including transport improvements and superfast broadband networks. There is a real opportunity for the Local Enterprise Partnerships which cover former coalfield areas to take a major role in taking forward regeneration locally.</p><p> </p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt grouped question UIN 205109 question first answered 24/09/2014 15:29:40 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

77127

registered interest
date	10/07/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Floods
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on making the full amount of flood funds available to local communities.
tabling member constituency	Rossendale and Darwen
tabling member printed	Jake Berry
uin	204999
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/12/2014 answer text <p>I refer the hon. Member to the flood recovery progress report published on 27 November, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.</p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 01/12/2014 09:33:48 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	4060 label Biography information for Sir Jake Berry

63853

registered interest
date	25/06/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Parking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library all responses to his Department's consultation on local authority parking.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	202289
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>We have placed in the Library of the House, a copy of the detailed summary of the 800 responses to the consultation.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 24/07/2014 14:48:00 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

63191

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Regeneration: Thames Gateway
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much each local authority in the Thames Gateway spent on economic development activities in each of the last 15 years for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Nicholas Soames
uin	201953
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/08/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The information is not centrally held in the form requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>I would note that many of the local authorities in the Thames Gateway cover an area larger than just the Thames Gateway, and do not split their published expenditure between inside and outside the Thames Gateway.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt grouped question UIN 201950 question first answered 21/08/2014 11:52:25 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

63194

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Regeneration: Thames Gateway
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much each local authority in the Thames Gateway spent on regeneration activities in the last 15 years for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Nicholas Soames
uin	201950
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/08/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The information is not centrally held in the form requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>I would note that many of the local authorities in the Thames Gateway cover an area larger than just the Thames Gateway, and do not split their published expenditure between inside and outside the Thames Gateway.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt grouped question UIN 201953 question first answered 21/08/2014 11:52:25 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

63199

registered interest
date	23/06/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Fire Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will estimate the Government spend per head of population on fire and rescue services in (a) Nottinghamshire, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Sherwood
tabling member printed	Mr Mark Spencer
uin	201779
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The table below shows local authority expenditure on fire and rescue services, as well as the number of fire incidents attended, over the last decade. It illustrates the significant fall in the number of incidents attended, whilst average spending has remained broadly the same over that long-term period.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td colspan="2"><p><em>Expenditure per head</em></p></td><td colspan="2"><p><em>Fire incidents attended</em></p></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p>Nottinghamshire</p></td><td><p>England</p></td><td><p>Nottinghamshire</p></td><td><p>England</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2003-04</p></td><td><p>£31.98</p></td><td><p>£34.82</p></td><td><p>13,800</p></td><td><p>473,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2004-05</p></td><td><p>£35.83</p></td><td><p>£38.36</p></td><td><p>9,000</p></td><td><p>342,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2005-06</p></td><td><p>£35.40</p></td><td><p>£40.56</p></td><td><p>8,700</p></td><td><p>336,100</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2006-07</p></td><td><p>£36.85</p></td><td><p>£43.03</p></td><td><p>8,600</p></td><td><p>336,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2007-08</p></td><td><p>£38.61</p></td><td><p>£43.46</p></td><td><p>7,700</p></td><td><p>293,900</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008-09</p></td><td><p>£38.61</p></td><td><p>£40.60</p></td><td><p>6,300</p></td><td><p>249,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009-10</p></td><td><p>£39.54</p></td><td><p>£41.71</p></td><td><p>6,200</p></td><td><p>241,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>£38.48</p></td><td><p>£41.12</p></td><td><p>5,600</p></td><td><p>228,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>£37.64</p></td><td><p>£39.87</p></td><td><p>6,100</p></td><td><p>223,900</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>£36.98</p></td><td><p>£39.61</p></td><td><p>3,300</p></td><td><p>154,400</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><sup>Sources: Revenue Outturn forms and Office of National Statistic’s mid-year population estimates. </sup></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>My Department does not publish statistics by the former Government Office Regions.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Last year, Sir Ken Knight’s independent review of the fire and rescue services found huge variations in the way that local fire and rescue authorities operated. Services continue to spend according to the budget they are given, rather than to the risks they have to manage. Huge variations exist between how the 46 different fire authorities operate, with the cost per head of providing a service almost double in some areas to that of others. This did not seem to be related to whether they are large or small, rural or urban, deprived or affluent.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Sir Ken concluded that there were significant opportunities for sensible savings such as through: sharing of senior staff, reforms to flexible staffing and crewing arrangements, better procurement, shared services, collaboration with emergency services and other organisations on service delivery and estates, sickness management, locally-led mergers and operational collaborations, new fire-fighting technology, preventative approaches and working with local businesses.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 09/09/2014 14:58:57 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer