Tag: 2014

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-03-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many applications to dispose of statutory allotments have been (a) submitted, (b) approved and (c) rejected in each local authority area in each year since 2010.

Stephen Williams

Further to the Allotments Act 1925, applications for consent to dispose of allotment land are submitted to the Department by local councils (parish councils and principal authorities). The table below shows the breakdown of applications since May 2010.

	Granted	Withdrawn	Refused
May 2010- March 2011	18	6	0
2011-12	17	5	0
2012-13	15	2	1
2013-14	17	1	4
2014-15 to date	1	1	0

To place this in context, the Secretary of State granted 34 allotment disposals in 2007, granted 22 in 2008 and granted 18 in 2009, whilst only 2 were declined, which is a greater rate than under this Administration.

I observe that the rt. hon. Member has been quoted in the media attacking such consents. He would have been wiser however to have undertaken a closer examination of the 68 individual consents granted to the local councils since May 2010.

The table below provides some context to help explain why there was a reasonable case by the representative local bodies for changing the statutory status of the land.

In January 2014, my Department published Allotment Disposal Guidance: Safeguards and Alternatives replacing the previous guidance from 2002. The new guidance strengthens allotment protection, as the requirement for waiting lists to be taken into account must now be rigorously applied to all that council’s waiting lists, not just the waiting list for the site to be disposed of. This aims to ensure that poorly maintained sites are not used to justify disposal. Ministers will be closely monitoring to ensure that this new guidance is followed.

Notwithstanding, I have taken the opportunity to analyse these previous cases in the table below. The National Allotment Society was consulted in every case, and nine out of ten decisions were consistent with advice from the National Allotment Society (where advice was given); the remaining cases where the advice diverged related to land not actually in use as allotments, requiring a judgement call on whether it was realistic to bring the land back into productive use.

Having analysed these approvals, I can note that half of the land disposed was not actually in use as allotments. Moreover, in every case where existing allotment plot holders were displaced, evidence from local authorities indicates that alternative plots were made available to them.

More new plots were proposed to be created and/or vacant sites proposed to be brought back into use than the number of proposed disposals of in-use allotment plots. Consequently, the statutory disposal process overseen by the Secretary of State since May 2010 should have resulted in an increase in allotment provision not a reduction. This reflects this Government’s commitment both to supporting local communities grow their own food and to protecting important community assets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-03-12.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the empty property business rates for the vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS database owned by (a) his Department and (b) any executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies of his Department in the current financial year.

Francis Maude

At the time of the last General Election the central Government estate was far larger than required and taxpayers were paying to maintain, run and rent properties which were under-occupied while other part of the freehold estate remained vacant.

The Government Property Unit has been supporting departments to rationalise rapidly the Government’s estate including by taking a whole of Government view of property. Since the 2010 General Election over £1.25 billion has been raised by selling surplus freehold properties. Through the exiting of property across the central civil estate, we have also delivered cumulative, gross run rate savings of over £454 million per annum.

Where surplus property is awaiting disposal or lease end, the government looks to explore all disposal options, including commercially sub-letting all or part of the space. Surplus property is listed on gov.uk

There is no liability at taxpayers’ expense for business rates on any vacant Cabinet Office properties in the current financial year.