HC Deb 13 March 2001 vol 364 cc529-30W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how much departmental money was spent(a) from 1 January 1989 to 30 April 1997 and (b) from 1 May 1997 to 31 December 2000 in connection with the Lewes-Polegate railway line. [153434]

Mr. Hill

[holding answer 12 March 2001]: This information is not available in the form requested.

Between 1 January 1989 and 25 May 1996, passenger rail services on the Lewes-Polegate railway line were operated by the British Railways Board, to which the following amounts of central Government grant were paid in 1988–89 to 1996–97.

Number of households that require new heating systems including boiler Number of households that required repairs to existing heating systems
Scheme manager Fitted and invoiced Order with installer Repairs completed and invoiced (of which require replacement boiler) Those awaiting repair1 Those awaiting replacement boiler1
Eaga (Lot1) 736 891 1,439 (469) 739 458
Eaga(Lot 3) 2,161 3,639 2,912(1,117) 1,845 1,102
Eaga (Lot 4) 1,092 3,216 2,265 (811) 1,107 808
Eastern (Lot 2) 1,956 3,952 1,358 (459) 1,986 4,879
1 Due to the one to six week delay between the comoletion of the work and the issue of invoices by contractors it is likely that work has already been completed in some of these house holds.

Central Government grants
Cash prices £ million
1988–89 551
1989–90 479
1990–91 637
1991–92 902
1992–93 1,194
1993–94 926
1994–95 1,783
1995–96 1,650
1996–97 1,257

Between 26 May 1996 and 31 December 2000, passenger rail services on the Lewes-Polegate railway line were operated by Connex South Central, to which the following amounts of franchise support were paid by the Franchising Director in 1996–97 to 1999–2000.

Franchise support
Cash prices £ million
1996–97 76
1997–98 76
1998–99 58
1999–2000 50

Franchise support for Connex South Central is the Franchising Director's contribution to the company's total expenditure on the provision of all its passenger services. The company is responsible for the detailed allocation of that expenditure between services on particular railway lines.