Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2016 to Question 32596, if he will place in the Library the spreadsheet used to calculate the allocation of the 2016-17 transition grant to individual authorities.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. Copies have been made available in the libraries of both Houses. It is available to view at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf.
The spreadsheet showing individual authority allocations was published on 8 February as part of the Core Spending Power: Supporting Information tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corespending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2016-to-2017.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the final local government finance settlement 2016-17, published on 8 February 2016, if he will place a copy of the (a) methodology used for calculating the distribution and (b) detailed model used to calculate the allocation to each individual authority of the 2016-17 transitional grant in the Library; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. Copies have been made available in the libraries of both Houses. It is available to view at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf.
Individual authority allocations were published on 8 February as part of the Core Spending Power: Supporting Information tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corespending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2016-to-2017.
The Secretary of State has already addressed questions from the House on this matter. I refer the hon. Member to the debate on Local Government Finance Report (England) on 10 February, Official Report, Columns 1643-1645.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the duration of his Department's lease at 2 Marsham Street is; and what break clause arrangements there are.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The move to 2 Marsham Street will reduce my Department's running costs by £9 million a year from 2015-16. Overall, these changes will save the Government £24 million a year.
The Department does not have a lease for 2 Marsham Street. Our co-location with the Home Office is formalised through an inter-department Memorandum of Terms of Occupation.
Since 2010, the Department has had considerable success in reducing the cost of its wider estate through the rationalisation of retained office space and targeted building disposals. This has seen the Department surrender six leasehold office properties through a combination of lease breaks and expiries, generating net savings in the period of around £7 million per annum. The Department has also successfully sub-let surplus space across its leasehold office estate during the same period, reducing the overall property costs by around £6.5 million per annum.
Building on this success, in 2013-14, we have already secured further savings of £4.6 million by subletting further space in Eland House in London. Most recently, the Department negotiated the early surrender of Eland House and is scheduled to relocate to 2 Marsham Street.
This illustrates the scope for local government and, indeed, the public sector as a whole to make sensible savings through better property management.
In June 2013, supporting the Prime Minister's commitment to support the development of small and medium enterprises, the Department agreed terms with business incubator providers to take vacant space at 2 Rivergate House in Bristol and Bridge House, Guildford. This is an important part of the Government's drive to assist the start-up and small and medium enterprises business and we are also working with the Government Property Unit on potential Government Space for Growth opportunities in other properties held by DCLG.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which five companies were used most often to provide temporary workers for his Department in the last financial year; and how much in agency fees was paid to each of them.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
In answering this question, we have used the Cabinet Office definition for contingent labour (temporary staff) which includes admin and clerical agency staff, interim managers and specialist contractors: use of such staff for short-term or specialist work can be better value for money than hiring staff on permanent contracts.
Details of the five companies that my Department has used most often in the last financial year for the provision of contingent labour are set out below:
Financial Year 2013-14
Organisation | Total Expenditure (excluding VAT) |
Capita Resourcing Ltd | £1,736,580 |
Reed Employment Services | £172,702 |
Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd | £136,335 |
Manpower UK Ltd | £40,423 |
Premier Employment Group Ltd | £22,677 |
To put this in context, my Department has cut spending on contingent labour from £14.4 million in 2009-10 to £3.3 million in 2013-14 as a result of the tightening of its internal management controls, institutionalising these in its systems and adhering to Treasury and Cabinet Office spending rules. This represents a saving of £11.1 million a year (2013-14 compared to 2009-10)
In addition to the savings on temporary workers, our departmental audited annual accounts for the core Department show that staff costs fell from £216 million in 2009-10 to £99 million in 2012-13, a reduction of 54% in cash terms, or a further saving of £117 million a year.
These savings also reflect the Coalition Government's agenda of decentralisation, ending the micromanagement of local government, the abolition of regional government, and the broader need to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which 10 consultancy firms were paid the most by his Department in the last financial year; and how much each of those firms was paid.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The table below sets out the ten consultancy firms that were paid the most by my Department in the last financial year
The data complies with definitions on Consultancy laid down by the Cabinet Office which excludes agency staff and interim (contingent) labour.
Financial Year 2013-14
Organisation | Total Expenditure (excluding VAT) |
Local Partnership LLP* | £150,918 |
PricewaterhouseCoopers | £108,516 |
Ove Arup & Partners | £66,790 |
Amec Environment & Infrastructure | £62,509 |
Ernest & Young LLP | £20,000 |
Capgemini UK Plc | £17,000 |
Grant Thornton UK LLP | £8,815 |
Giant Professional Limited | £6,400 |
Oakleigh Consulting Ltd | £4,950 |
Land Use Consultants | £1,345 |
* Local Partnerships is a company that is jointly owned by HM Treasury and the Local Government Association; it provides commercial expertise on matters of infrastructure, legal and contractual complexity and acts for the benefit of the public sector.
My Department has cut spending on consultancy from £36.6 million in 2009-10 to £0.5 million in 2013-14. This represents a saving of £36.1 million a year (2013-14 compared to 2009-10) and has been achieved through contract renegotiations, terminations and adherence to Cabinet Office controls on consultancy spending.
To put this in context, based on current estimates (which reflect accounting consequences from machinery of government changes) the DCLG Group is reducing its annual running costs by around 40% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15. This equates to net savings of at least £532 million over this spending review period and includes savings of around £420 million from the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many overseas trips, and at what total cost, his Department has made in each year since 2010; and what the costs of (a) flights, (b) internal travel, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence were of each trip.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Role of the Department
Reflecting our responsibilities for local government, housing, planning and communities across England, the work of the Department involves staff travelling to different parts of the country.
Improved procurement has reduced our average domestic hotel rate in the UK by 8% between 2009-10 and 2012-13. Moreover, domestic flights for longer journeys can avoid the need for paying for staff to stay in a hotel overnight.
Since 2011-12, the Department accepted responsibility for some new functions outside of London, including residual functions following the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions and then oversight of the European Regional Development Fund following the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies. As these business functions relate to work in areas outside of London and to the European Commission, this has therefore increased our travel spend compared to the base of 2010-11. However, this is far more than offset by the very significant savings to taxpayers of the abolition of these regional bodies.
Based on current estimates (which reflect accounting consequences from machinery of government changes) the DCLG Group is reducing its annual running costs by around 40% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15. This equates to net savings of at least £532 million over this spending review period and includes savings of around £420 million from the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions.
In addition to this, I note that the Regional Development Agencies were spending in the region of £246 million a year on administration (as cited in 11 March 2009, Official Report, Column 592W).
Spending data
The tables below list spending on travel by financial year. Figures for 2009-10 are from July 2009, as this is when the department's current approved travel agent contract commenced; those figures are therefore only for three-quarters of the financial year, and the full year is likely to be proportionately higher.
Overseas Travel | Overseas Accommodation | Overseas Subsistence | Total | |
July 2009 - March 10 | £408,621 | £19,847 | £79,574 | £508,042 (part-year) |
2010-11 | £56,304 | £21,759 | £27,798 | £105,861 |
2011-12 | £69,463 | £21,204 | £19,946 | £110,613 |
2012-13 | £78,474 | £29,224 | £21,911 | £129,609 |
UK Travel | UK Accommodation | UK Subsistence | Total | |
July 2009 - March 10 | £621,028 | £309,260 | £174,888 | £1,105,176 (part-year) |
2010-11 | £434,467 | £199,563 | £81,315 | £715,345 |
2011-12 | £980,307 | £162,544 | £71,913 | £1,214,764 |
2012-13 | £1,030,710 | £166,149 | £74,424 | £1,271,283 |
Explanatory notes:
- Overseas subsistence costs can include accommodation, meals and travel tickets purchased locally.
- The costs of internal travel abroad are not routinely recorded in the form requested and this information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
- Data on cost per trip is not centrally held in the form requested.
- For car hire, the data from our finance systems do not separate out expenditure for domestic and international car hire and this could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
- For helicopter hire, our records show that the Department has incurred no expenditure on this since 2010-11.
- Figures contained in this answer may differ from previous answers to Parliamentary Questions, as the data extracts have been re-run and reflect ongoing accruals and data. Delays in billing or crediting transactions can sometimes have an effect on the spend data between the financial years.
Taken in the whole, we have reduced overall travel spending compared to the last Administration, and delivered substantive savings for taxpayers' from the abolition of regional government in England.