Local Government Finance

Sir Peter Soulsby
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authority population estimates used in the calculations to inform the 2007-08 local government funding settlement have been more than 5,000 people lower than official estimates of the population in those authorities.

Mr. Woolas
The 2007-08 Settlement uses population projections data for 2007 produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as the key driver of population in the settlement calculations. For all data used in settlement calculations we have to use the best data available on a consistent basis for all authorities that are available at the time of making the settlement. At the time of making the multi-year settlements for 2006-07 and 2007-08, the best population projections data available were the 2003-based sub-national population projections produced by the ONS. These data were published on 25 November 2004.

The most recently published ONS mid-year population estimates are those for mid-2005, published on 24 August 2006.

Comparing the two sets of data: 12 local authorities, five police authorities and four fire and rescue authorities have their 2003-based projected population data for 2007 5,000 or more lower than their mid-2005 population estimate.

Judy Mallaber
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which local authorities met the deadline of 31 May 2007 to apply for directions to capitalise equal pay back pay from 2007-08.

Mr. Woolas
We have received applications from the following authorities, all of which met the deadline:

Basildon

Bedfordshire

Bexley

Birmingham

Blackburn with Darwen

Blackpool

Bolton

Brighton and Hove

Bromley

Bury

Cheshire

City of Nottingham

Cumbria

Darlington

Daventry

Dudley

Greenwich

Hammersmith and Fulham

Haringey

Havering

Kingston upon Hull

Knowsley

Leeds

Lewisham

Luton

Merton

Middlesbrough

Newark and Sherwood

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newham

North Tyneside

Northamptonshire

Oldham

Peterborough

Plymouth

Portsmouth

Preston

Redcar and Cleveland

Rotherham

Salford

Sefton

Sheffield

South Tyneside

Stafford

Staffordshire

Stevenage

Stockton-on-Tees

Stoke-on-Trent

Trafford

Wakefield

Waltham Forest

Warrington

Wear Valley

Wirral

Wolverhampton

York