Departmental Public Expenditure

Mr. Dunne
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to his Department’s press release of 24 March 2010, on operational efficiency, whether the £200 million of efficiency savings announced will be in addition to the £500 million of savings identified in the pre-Budget report.

Barbara Follett
The £200 million contribution to operational efficiency and Smarter Government savings are in addition to the £500 million announced at 2009 pre-Budget report. The £200 million of savings is my Department’s contribution towards £11 billion savings that are being made across Government. The £11 billion of savings will help halve the deficit over four years and protect front-line priorities.

Mr. Dunne
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to which programmes the £500 million of savings identified in the Pre-Budget Report will apply; and whether this sum includes savings from the (a) New Deal for Communities Fund, (b) Working Neighbourhoods Fund, (c) Local Enterprise Growth Initiative, (d) Local Authority Business Growth Incentive Scheme and (e) Housing and Planning Delivery Grant.

Barbara Follett
The Public Value Programme, launched at Budget 2008, has been conducting demanding value for money reviews across at least 50 per cent. of each Department’s budget. On the basis of the early findings of the programme, the 2009 pre-Budget report announced £5 billion of savings by 2012-13 through cutting lower value or lower priority spend. CLG’s contribution to this figure was £500 million. Budget 2010 announces further details of these savings, including:

Improved targeting of housing growth and regeneration funding, saving £340 million: including £40 million by concluding the new deal for communities, and a further £300 million from rationalising regional development agency regeneration spending, and programmes including the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative and the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant.

Saving at least £35 million in housing benefit costs; ending smaller Communities and Local Government (CLG) funded time-limited communities programmes, saving £25 million; and rationalising other smaller CLG programmes, saving a total of £160 million.