§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the funding levels for Supporting People are in Lancashire in 2003–04. [157692]
§ Yvette CooperThe final Supporting People grant awarded to Lancashire in 2003–04 was £30,781,847 to meet the costs of housing related support services and in 2004–05 it is £30,728,125. The Lancashire Supporting People team also received £767,000 to help with the administration of the programme in 2003–04 rising to £814,000 in 2004–05
§ Mr. DhandaTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the future of the Supporting People programme. [156812]
§ Yvette CooperOn 12 February, the Government published the report of the Independent Review and announced funding of £1.8 billion for the Supporting People programme in 2004–05
The review has found that there are wide variations in unit costs between authorities and that £1.8 billion is too much to pay for the legacy services. The Government are concerned to ensure that value for money is achieved and that valuable services for the vulnerable are sustained. That is why the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has asked the Audit Commission to undertake detailed inspections of local authorities with high unit costs, to inform the Spending Review and funding allocations for 2005–06.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is also drawing up a comprehensive programme of work to take forward some of the recommendations of the review.
§ Mr. DhandaTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to announce funding levels for the authorities administering the Supporting People programme. [156819]
§ Yvette CooperOn 12 February, the Government announced funding of £1.8 billion for the Supporting People programme in 2004–05. Administering Authorities were informed of their individual allocations on the same day.
§ Mr. DhandaTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in connection with funding for the Supporting People programme in 2004–05. [156820]
§ Yvette CooperOn 12 February, the Government announced funding of £1.8 billion for the Supporting People programme in 2004–05. This announcement followed an extensive consideration of the Independent Review report of the programme and discussions between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and partner Departments.
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§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the review of the budget of the Supporting People programme will be completed; and when the Supporting People teams will be advised of their budgets for 2004–05. [156880]
§ Yvette CooperThe Independent Review of the Supporting People programme is now complete. On 12 February, the Government published the report of the Independent Review and announced funding of £1.8 billion for the Supporting People programme in 2004–05. Administering authorities were informed of their individual allocations on the same day.
§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he will implement procedures for Supporting People teams to bid for growth monies in making capital bids to the Housing Corporation. [156886]
§ Yvette CooperThe 2004–05 Supporting People grant allocations includes a one off revenue allocation for the current round of Housing Corporation capital awards. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not intend introducing a Supporting People bidding round to provide additional revenue for new schemes in future years.
The total Supporting People grant in England for 2004–05 is £1.8 billion. The management of these grants is now firmly a matter for each Supporting People Administering Authority.
In the longer term the intention is to introduce an allocations formula. If authorities wish to commission new services the necessary revenue may be achieved through the re-modelling or de-commissioning of existing services.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on funding for the Supporting People programme in Lancashire for 2004–05. [157734]
§ Yvette CooperThe Supporting People grant allocated to Lancashire for 2004–05 is £30,728,125 to meet the costs of housing related support services. In addition to this grant the Lancashire Supporting People team will also receive £814,000 during 2004–05 to help with the administration of the programme.
§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to redefine the definition of housing-related support under Supporting People. [151772]
§ Yvette CooperFollowing the recommendations in the Independent Review of the Supporting People Programme, we will be looking at whether there is a need to make clearer the definition of what is housing-related support.