To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the likely effect on local authority budgets for 2009-10 of his Department's decision to reduce housing and planning delivery grant allocations in order to fund changes to local authority rent increases. (284442)

The housing and planning delivery grant (HPDG) allocation was reduced from £160 million to £135 million in 2009-10 and from £250 million to £200 million in 2010-11 in order to balance budgets, including the impact of changes to local authority rent increases. This reflects the decline in housing completions and the lower number of plans being submitted. The baseline of HPDG will still increase significantly, almost doubling to the £200 million figure next year from £101 million in 2008-09.

The average HPDG allocation to local authorities is therefore budgeted to rise from £254,000 in 2008-09 to £340,000 in 2009-10 and £504,000 in 2010-11.