To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authorities in (a) England and (b) the East Midlands have budgeted for insulation improvements to their housing stock in 2008-09. (227547)

[holding answer 16 October 2008]: Data on local authority budgeted capital spend are provided through the Business Plan Statistical Appendix. The returns for the financial year 2007-08, which contain the budget data for 2008-09, are expected to be published in November 2008.

The latest Business Plans by which local authorities provide the Department with such data give budgeted spend for 2007-08. For that year out of 205 local authorities who still owned council housing, 142 indicated they planned some spend on insulation activity during 2007-08. Five authorities did not provide data on this question.

In the East Midlands 16 out of 32 local authorities owning council housing planned some spend on insulation activity during 2007-08.