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Land Registry: Electronic Conveyancing
The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): On Monday 12 February 2007, Land Registry will launch a formal consultation exercise to seek views on the first part of the proposed secondary legislation required to enable professional conveyancers and others to have access to the electronic conveyancing network, which Land Registry will establish. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, a person must enter into a network access agreement with the Chief Land Registrar (who is the head of Land Registry) before he or she can carry out conveyancing transactions electronically. The consultation document includes draft network access rules dealing with the types of agreement there will be, the criteria a person must meet before he or she can obtain an agreement, those terms that must be included in an agreement, and the grounds, and procedure, for termination of an agreement by the registrar. The consultation document also includes a draft order, which it is proposed should be made under the Electronic Communications Act 2000, to provide for electronic contracts for registered land. The consultation document will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Local Government: GLA Grant
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The general GLA grant for 2007-08 has been determined today by the Secretary for State for Communities and Local Government at £38,348,000, after consultation with the Mayor of London. The grant is a block grant, paid for the purposes of the Greater London Authority and its functional bodies under Section 100 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999.
The grant for 2007-08 is based on the three-year settlement for the grant announced by the Government in November 2004, following the outcome of the 2004 spending review, together with additional funding for the Mayor’s new housing responsibilities following the outcome of the review of the GLA’s powers in July 2006.
Royal Mail: Financing Framework
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Truscott): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Alistair Darling) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Government and Royal Mail have agreed to the financing framework following my Statement of 18 May last year.
The financing framework will provide Royal Mail with the ability to manage its pension deficit and invest in modernisation to improve its performance and efficiency. In addition to the loan facilities of £900 million and the transfer of £850 million of reserves into an escrow account to support the pension fund announced last year, we have also agreed to make an additional shareholder loan of £300 million available to the business to provide the company with adequate financial headroom. As with the proposed framework already announced, all financing for the Royal Mail will be on commercial terms. We plan to agree the final legal documentation and have these measures in place by 25 March 2007.
We have also agreed with Royal Mail management a reward scheme that allows the employees to share in the value they help to create in the business as it improves its performance.
Under this reward scheme the Government have agreed to the company providing employees with “partnership units” of a notional value equivalent to a 20 per cent economic interest in the projected equity value of the group in the ordinary course of business and based on the management's plan. This will allow employees to share fully in the value they help to create. In addition, we have agreed to the replacement of the current and highly effective “Share in Success” programme with a new scheme. To provide adequate certainty for the public finances, while properly rewarding the efforts of Royal Mail employees, the partnership unit scheme will run for the duration of the Royal Mail Letters' transformation plan, up until March 2012. Employees can receive a maximum of £5,300 over the period.
The scheme aligns employee, management and shareholder interests in making all parties committed to the successful performance of the business—this is the right approach in a fully competitive market.
We fully support the business in delivering the programme of reform that it needs to undertake. We recognise that there are a number of difficult changes that need to be made to the way the company operates, including limiting the pension liability going forward, and fully support the business in making them. It is for the management and staff to make the changes necessary to give the company a sound platform on which to build for long-term success in a competitive market.
Transport Innovation Fund
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Douglas Alexanderhas made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Further to the Written Statement by the then Secretary of State, the right honourable Alistair Darling MP, on 26January 2006 (Official Report, Commons; cols. 66-67WS), I am today publishing further guidance for local authorities interested in developing business cases for funding from the transport innovation fund (TIF) for local schemes to tackle congestion. Local authorities have asked for support in developing their proposals to enable them to come forward with business cases in 2007.
The department has supported those authorities that want to bring forward innovative schemes to address specific local congestion problems. On 6November we awarded a further £7.5 million of pump-priming funds to support the development of local TIF packages that combine demand management, including road pricing, with better public transport.
Up to £200 million per year from TIF will be made available for such packages. However, although we would not expect to fund any individual package that was larger than the total amount, more may be made available if a sufficient number of high quality and higher value schemes emerge.
We will be particularly looking to fund schemes that can pilot approaches to road pricing elsewhere as well as provide benefits locally. We would hope to see small schemes that could be up and running by 2010-11 and larger local schemes within two years of that. As the forthcoming draft Road Transport Bill will specify, any subsequent proposals on a national road pricing scheme will require new primary legislation.
We are today sharing the product of the substantial analytical work on local scheme design and appraisal undertaken by the department over the past year. It will help local authorities to develop well designed schemes which are, where appropriate, consistent with each other and any future local or national schemes.
This funding policy is without prejudice to any other decisions that may be required in relation to the schemes that underlie TIF proposals, which will be separately considered at the appropriate time.
Copies of the guidance have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
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