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Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Answer

Mrs. Fitzsimons: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Witney constituency, the effects on Rochdale of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [217366] Yvette Cooper: Along with other Government Departments, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is committed to improving the lives of people across the whole of the UK. For example, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is determined that everyone should have the opportunity to have a decent home, and since 1997 we have reduced the number of non-decent homes nationally by 1 million. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister provides grant funding that benefits the Rochdale constituency through a number of programmes. For example, over the period 2001-06 Rochdale has been allocated £20.7 million of Neighbourhood Renewal Fund resources to help the local authority, in collaboration with the Local Strategic Partnership, improve services in the most deprived neighbourhoods in the area. More broadly, since 1997 we have been able to increase the total amount of Government grant given to local authorities by £22.6 billion. This is a 33 per cent. increase in real terms. Rochdale council has received an average annual increase in formula grant since 1997 of 5.3 per cent. The Neighbourhood Statistics Service provides a wide range of statistical information at parliamentary constituency level, taken from the 2001 census and other sources. This service is available on the National Statistics website at http://neighbourhood.statistics. gov.uk./.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c364-5W;432 c362-3W; 217366

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Government departments Policy Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Witney

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk