Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps his Department is taking to assist those local communities which are most vulnerable to the effects of the recession; and if he will make a statement.

Barbara Follett (Minister of State (the East of England), Regional Affairs; Stevenage, Labour)

Government will continue to do what is necessary to get Britain through the recession as quickly and as fairly as possible.

We are seeing real results from the schemes put in place for businesses, homeowners and those facing unemployment as a result of the global recession.

For business the Government are aware of the impact business rates can have in the current economic climate which is why we have introduced a range of measures including the introduction of the business rates deferral scheme which will enable business ratepayers to defer up to an estimated £650 million across 1.7million properties, boosting their cash flow.

We are also supporting the construction industry whilst increasing the number and quality of social houses available, for example through the Kickstart programme which is over £1 billion targeted at currently stalled sites to support development of high-quality mixed tenure developments.

In addition we introduced the LA new build programme to provide funding for local authorities to deliver new social housing over the next two years on land they already own that can be developed only by them. The £460 million fund could provide nearly 4,000 new homes by March 2012.

For homeowners: help is available to households at every stage of the process to ensure repossession is a last resort. Over 300,000 homeowners have got help and advice since April 2008 and direct financial assistance is helping over 200,000 people.

For job seekers: Government have now invested £5 billion to help those facing unemployment as a result of the global recession, providing more help and advice at every stage of unemployment.

CLG are supporting local government to deliver the LGA's pledge to increase the number of apprenticeships by 7,500.

The HCA have committed to delivering 1300 apprentices through the Housing Pledge, and a further 1,500 apprentices and local labour opportunities through the National Affordable Housing Programme. They are also looking at their other funding programmes to see how they can lever in more apprentices through those.