Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new jobs have been created in each Enterprise Zone in each financial year since 2010-11; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of jobs at each Enterprise Zone which have been moved to other locations.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
Enterprise Zones have reported that they have attracted over 19,000 jobs since they started in 2012.
Data on the proportion of jobs at each Enterprise Zone which have been moved to other locations is not available. Applications for new Enterprise Zones are not approved where there is considered to be a high likelihood that existing businesses will transfer to the site from neighbouring areas.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 26 March 2015 to Question 225021, what proportion of funds under the 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund which were committed after May 2010 have not yet been drawn down; and whether he expects the full amount to be drawn down before the September 2015 deadline.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The programme remains fully committed and £838,959,958 has been paid out from the European Regional Development Fund since 1 May 2010 and £526,182,985 remains to be claimed by grant recipients. We have extended some project activity into the autumn to ensure that opportunities to spend remaining funds are maximised by the deadline of the end of December 2015.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of funds under the 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund which were committed after May 2010 have not yet been drawn down.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The full £2.7 billion European Regional Development Fund allocation for 2007-13 has been committed, and is on track and on course for where we would expect to be at this stage in the programme.
The programme is worth a total of £2,749,090,730 excluding match funding. Since 1 May 2010, the current programme has contracted projects worth a total value of £1,365,042,943.
Of that, £816,874,958 has been paid out from the European Regional Development Fund and £548,167,985 remains to be claimed by grant recipients. All activity, outputs and spend must be completed by September 2015, and recipients then have until the end of December 2015 to submit their claims for expenditure incurred.
As outlined to the hon. Member in the answer to him of 26 November 2014, Question 206317, the 2000-06 programme under the last Labour Government was poorly administered; only 93% of the allocation was ever committed, leaving £311 million of uncommitted resources.
This Government has overhauled the administration of the 2007-13 programme, and cleaned up the mess left behind on the 2000-06 programme, and at the same time, navigated through the reams of complex European Commission bureaucracy around the programme.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what amount his Department and its agencies spent on research and development in each year since 2010-11; and what proportion such spending was of total departmental spending.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
This Government has put in place greater scrutiny and challenge of newly commissioned research programmes to deliver better value for money; we have intentionally sought to cut wasteful spending and unnecessary programmes.
Indeed, the last Administration spent £25.6 million on research projects that were commissioned but not published before May 2010, and many of those projects did not represent value for money for taxpayers – as evident by the fact that many were unpublished for years.
The table below shows expenditure by my Department on research and development:
Year | Amount |
2009-2010 | £29,735,241 |
2010 -2011 | £20,979,553 |
2011-2012 | £8,478,542 |
2012-2013 | £6,502,799 |
2013-2014 | £7,287,772 |
2014-March 2015 | £6,287,749 |
(Figures prepared on an accruals basis)
Figures on the total spending of the Department can be found in our published accounts.
The DCLG Group (i.e. the Department and its agencies) is making a real terms reduction in its annual running costs by around 40% over the period 2010-11 to 2014-15. This equates to net savings of over £640 million over this spending review period.
It has not been possible to collate detailed figures from our Arms Length Bodies in the time before prorogation.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of suppliers to his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are signatories to the Prompt Payment Code.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
This information is not centrally held.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of undisputed invoices his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid within five days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The information requested is in the table below.
Financial Year 2013/14 : Number of undisputed invoices paid within 5 days*
Number paid within 5 days | Percentage paid within 5 days | |
Department for Communities and Local Government | 7021 | 81.82% |
Planning Inspectorate | 2954 | 88.02% |
* the term paid represents invoiced funds received in the suppliers bank account
My Department's target is 80%.
Please note, the Homes and Communities Agency does not monitor/report on payments made within 5 days. The requirement is for them to report on performance against a 30 day target; for 2013/14 they paid 98% of invoices within 30 days.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the amount (a) his Department and (b) its agencies and non-departmental public bodies spent on procurement was paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (i) directly and (ii) through the supply chain in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The Government has overhauled public procurement to open it up to businesses of all sizes.
On 25 February 2015, we announced that central government spent an unprecedented £11.4 billion with small and medium sized enterprises in 2013-14, a record 26.1% of direct and indirect spend. This meets our aspiration, set in 2010, of 25% of government procurement spend by the end of this Parliament.
My Department's figure is 29.5% - above the Government's goal.
The data on central government spend in 2013-14 is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-spend-with-smes-2013-to-2014
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of suppliers to his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid subcontractors within 30 days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
This information is not held centrally. However, where a contractor enters into a subcontract, for the purpose of performing its obligations under the contract, a term is included in such subcontract. The term requires payment to be made by the contractor to the subcontractor within a specified period not exceeding 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice as defined by the subcontract.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what requirements his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies place on suppliers in respect of their payment terms to subcontractors as part of their standard terms and conditions.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
This information is not held centrally. However, where a contractor enters into a subcontract, for the purpose of performing its obligations under the contract, a term is included in such subcontract. The term requires payment to be made by the contractor to the subcontractor within a specified period not exceeding 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice as defined by the subcontract.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many business tenants are in place in each Enterprise Zone.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Since they started in April 2012, Enterprise Zones have reported that they have created over 15,500 jobs, and over 480 businesses have been established.