Written question asked by Lord Pickles (Conservative) on Tuesday, 21 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 23 October 2008. It was answered by John Healey (Labour) on Wednesday, 29 October 2008 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

State of the Cities Database

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the purpose of the proposed State of the Cities Database development is.

Answer: CLG is committed to keeping the key data that underpinned the ““State of the English Cities”” report, published by ODPM in March 2006, updated within the State of the Cities Database (SOCD). The database is used extensively by central and local government. Regional Development Agencies, academics and bodies like the Centre for Cities and Work Foundation, to monitor the progress and performance of cities in England.Taking account of feedback received from users since the launch of SOCD in November 2006, a new and improved version of the database was published by the Department in September of this year.The Department is considering making further improvements to SOCD, by looking at replacing data on Wards and Tracts, with data on Super Output Areas (SOAs). This is because since the release of the 2001 Census, SOAs have mainly replaced Wards for the release of statistical information.

Secondary information