HC Deb 17 July 2002 vol 389 cc341-3W
Clive Efford

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what action he is taking to identify deprived communities at sub-ward level to ensure that they are not excluded from future Government programmes to combat poverty and social exclusion. [69511]

and 1996 Housing Acts as being eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and the number of these households resident in various types of temporary accommodation, including bed and breakfast hotels, at the end of each quarter.

National and regional figures are presented in a quarterly Statistical Release, and an accompanying Supplementary Table also summarises reported information at local authority level. Both of these are available in the Library and via the ODPM website.

A summary of available information for the 46 unitary authorities in England is presented in the following table.

Mr. McNulty

The Government's Neighbourhood Statistics initiative will aim to provide deprivation-related data at sub-ward level in the future.

In addition, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will shortly award a contract to investigate how the Indices of Deprivation 2000 (the current measure used

to identify deprived neighbourhoods) may be further developed and, where possible, updated.

As part of this contract, the researchers will assess the potential for further developing the Indices to sub-ward level.