§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) if he will assess the difference between the level of housing management and maintenance allowance for Brent council in 2003–04 calculated using national crime statistics and the level using more local crime statistics;[163362]
(2) for what reason crime levels used in the calculation of housing management and maintenance allowances are county-wide figures; and if he will use more local figures in such calculations; [163365]
(3) what assessment has been made of the impact of the new arrangements for housing management and maintenance allowances on the Government's child poverty strategy; [163370]
(4) if he will reflect the costs of administering a housing service to areas with high ethnic minority populations in the formula used to calculate management and maintenance allowances; [163371]
(5) if he will amend the management and maintenance allowance for housing revenue accounts to take account of overcrowding. [163372]
§ Keith HillThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister made proposals to revise the calculation of management and maintenance allowances within Housing Revenue Account subsidy in a consultation paper published in July 2003. Following consultation the new methodology was adopted for 2004–05 and onwards.
The research underlying the proposals found that crime levels were a significant driver of an authority's relative need to spend. Although the original proposal was to use county-wide crime figures, respondents to the consultation suggested that appropriate figures were available at individual local authority level. In the calculation of the allowances for 2004–05, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister therefore calculated a relative crime rate for each individual local authority by comparing the recorded crime figures at the local and national level. County level figures were not used. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister plans to continue to use local authority level relative crime rates in future years.
The management and maintenance allowances for 2003–04 did not use the new methodology and therefore did not include any crime figures. As both the national and local figure feeds into the calculation for 2004–05, it is not possible to compare the difference between allowances using either one of these figures. Using the methodology as outlined, the combined allowance for Brent for 2004–05 after transitional protection is £1,892.85 per dwelling.
With data currently available, it is not possible to assess the direct impact of the new arrangements on the Government's Child Poverty Strategy. However, the new methodology is widely recognised as achieving a better allocation of resources across all authorities, and the overall increase in resources for local authority management and maintenance has been welcomed as recognising the important role that housing management plays in meeting a number of the Government's priorities.
1044WIn discussions with the local authority associations, the extra costs associated with administering a housing service in areas with high ethnic minority populations were cited as costs of dealing with the consequences of racial harassment and also translation and interpretation costs. The use of the local recorded crime rate is intended to cover issues around the former. It was not possible to include the latter as there is a lack of robust data both on the numbers of languages spoken in each authority and on the actual size of the additional costs incurred.
There are no plans to review the allowances to take account of overcrowding.