To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authorities had their bid for disabled facilities grant capital allocation for 2007-08 not met in full; what criteria are applied to decide the proportion of bid met; and if she will make a statement. (153773)

In 2007-08 216 local authorities (LAs) in England did not have their bid for Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) funding in full. Despite substantially increasing the Government funding available for the national DFG programme, from £57 million in 1997 to £126 million in 2007-08, there is still considerable demand for the grant.

The national budget is divided up between the regions using a formula which takes into account data from the English House Condition Survey on the number of disabled people in each region living in unsuitable housing and a regional building cost index.

Government offices (GOs) are responsible for overseeing the allocation of DFG resources. In order to assist the GOs in this process the department supplied them with the LA bid for DFG funds and a local needs indicator, which is the number of individuals in each LA in receipt of either disability living allowance or attendance allowance. The GOs take these factors into account and balance them with any local data or information which they think is relevant in order to allocate DFG resources.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she will publish the Government’s response to the consultation on the Disabled Facilities Grant Programme: the Government’s proposals to improve programme delivery. (153774)

The summary of responses to the Disabled Facilities Grant Programme consultation was published on the Department’s website on 13 August 2007, please see following weblink:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/facilitiesprogrammegovernmentspr.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what requests she has received from (a) Bassetlaw District Council, (b) Nottinghamshire County Council and (c) Manton Neighbourhood Renewal Pathfinder for inclusion in the participatory budgeting pilot. (153853)

During 2006, members of the Manton Community Alliance, the delivery body for the Manton Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder, attended two workshops on participatory budgeting (PB) run by the Participatory Budgeting Unit (PB Unit), run by Church Action on Poverty, and part funded by the Department.

Early in 2007, following these seminars and further discussions, the Manton Community Alliance invited the PB Unit to make a presentation to their board on developing a PB pilot in Manton. In May 2007, the Manton Community Alliance Board voted to develop a PB project and engaged with the PB Unit to assist in this process.