Travellers

Debate between Caroline Flint and Lord Stunell

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Ministerial Corrections

[Caroline Flint]

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate his Department has made of the number of unauthorised Traveller sites in (a) each local authority area and (b) England (i) in each of the last five years and (ii) since May 2010.

[Official Report, 8 September 2011, Vol. 532, c. 752W.]

Letter of correction from Andrew Stunell:

An error has been identified in the written answer given to the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) on 8 September 2011. The error occurred in the figures given for January 2009, January 2010 and January 2011.

The full answer given was as follows:

[Andrew Stunell]

The “Count of Gypsy and Traveller Caravans” undertaken bi-annually by local authorities in England and collated by my Department collects data on the number of caravans on unauthorised sites in England. It does not provide data on the number of unauthorised sites. Information on the number of caravans on unauthorised sites in England and by local authority area for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 is available in the Library of the House.

Figures from the “Count of Gypsy and Traveller Caravans” for the past five years indicate a downward trend on unauthorised caravans.

Communities and Local Government

Debate between Caroline Flint and Lord Stunell

Wednesday 29th June 2011 Ministerial Corrections

[Caroline Flint]

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding his Department provided to each local authority for community cohesion projects in (a) 2011-12 and (b) each of the last three financial years.

[Official Report, 15 June 2011, Vol. 529, c. 787-91W.]

Letter of correction from Mr. Andrew Stunell:

An error has been identified in the text of the Minister’s answer given to the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) on 15 June 2011.

The full answer given was as follows:

[Andrew Stunell]

Between 2008-09 and 2010-11 funding for cohesion projects was provided to local authorities via unringfenced Area Based Grant In 2011-12, general unringfenced funding of £190.540 million was allocated to local authorities in England through Local Services Support Grant with the freedom to use it to meet locally identified priorities, including community cohesion.

The following table shows funding allocation for cohesion projects for each local authority from 2008-09 to 2010-11.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Caroline Flint and Lord Stunell

Monday 17th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Stunell]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. The local government finance review will start later this month and will indeed produce a new determination of funding for local authorities that gives them much more freedom to spend and raise their revenue, starting from 2013.

[Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)]

In his appearance before the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government, the Secretary of State said that there was no need for local authorities to make cuts to front-line services, yet only last week the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association said that

“the level of spending reduction that councils are going to have to make goes way beyond anything that conventional efficiency drives, such as shared services, can achieve.”

If the Secretary of State and his team disagree, will the Minister tell us how many local authorities will be able to meet their budget cuts without cutting either jobs or front-line services?

[Andrew Stunell]

It is obviously for every local authority to take its decisions on what services it supports with the money it has available. Councils will have much more freedom and flexibility, with the money that they do have, in making choices in future. It is for them to decide on their priorities.

[Caroline Flint]

I will take that as meaning none. As the Minister knows, in the real world, these huge front-loaded cuts cannot be made by efficiency savings alone. The Secretary of State and his team have said on many occasions that the settlement is fair. He said that it is progressive and that it protects the most vulnerable. The House of Commons Library has confirmed that the top 10% of most deprived areas are being hit with cuts four times worse than those in the best-off areas. To put it another way, while people in Hartlepool will lose £113 per head, residents in Wokingham will lose only £4 per head. Does the Minister still think that that is fair?

[Andrew Stunell]

I say to the right hon. Lady that we have adjusted her formula grants to put a greater emphasis on the importance of deprivation—from 73% to 83%. Our banded floors mean that the percentage loss of formula grant for Hartlepool is lower than for Wokingham.