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Social Housing

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many council houses have been transferred to RSLs and other private bodies since 1997. [57271]

Ms Keeble: In the five years since January 1997, it is estimated that approximately 365,000 council houses in England have been transferred to RSLs and other private bodies.

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many council houses have been (a) built and (b) sold in each local authority since 1997. [57270]

Ms Keeble: The number of council dwellings built has been falling for many years. Of the 354 local authorities, only 48 reported completing any council dwellings since April 1997. These are given in the following table. These figures are based on monthly numbers reported by local authorities and have not been adjusted for incomplete returns. Figures for the number of dwellings completed each year are published in the Department's Local Housing Statistics.

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Tables showing reported information on council houses sold by each local authority in England, along with national and regional summaries, for each year since 1979–80 are available in the Library.

New council dwellings built between April 1997 and March 2002

Local authority	Council dwellings built
Ashford	9
Bedford	8
Bristol	17
Broadland	6
Bromsgrove	21
Canterbury	11
Cotswold	54
Derwentside	6
Derby	1
Durham	3
Eastbourne	8
East Hampshire	26
East Hertfordshire	4
East Lindsey	1
Eden	1
Erewash	12
Hackney	34
Hertsmere	1
Hillingdon	37
Islington	5
Kennet	11
Leeds	17
Leicester	130
Litchfield	21
Mansfield	10
Milton Keynes	7
Mole Valley	12
North Hertfordshire	1
Nottingham	15
Reigate and Banstead	2
Rotherham	4
Rushcliffe	17
Sandwell	33
Selby	3
Sevenoaks	1
Shepway	2
South Bucks	29
South Cambridgeshire	55
South Hams	24
South Kesteven	8
South Northamptonshire	1
South Tyneside	11
Stroud	46
Teignbridge	4
Waltham Forrest	282
Waveney	1
West Oxfordshire	3
Worcester	27

Supported Housing

Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what safeguards have been put in place to ensure that tenants in supported housing, whose support costs are met in full by housing benefits, will continue to have these costs met in full from April 2003 under the provisions of Supporting People. [57209]

Ms Keeble: Local authorities administering Supporting People from April 2003 are being instructed to pay Supporting People grants where housing benefit is

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currently covering support costs and are auditing the preparation to make this change. People on housing benefit at 31 March 2003 will see no change.

Affordable Housing

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many affordable

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empty homes there were in (a) rural areas by region and (b) England by region in each of the last 10 years. [56974]

Ms Keeble [holding answer 16 May 2002]: The number of local authority (LA) and registered social landlord (RSL) empty homes in (a) rural areas by region and (b) England by region in each of the last ten years are set out in the following tables:

Table 1: Number of LA and RSL empty homes in England which are in rural areas by region

	1 April:
Region	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993(29)	1992
North-east	3,500	3,000	2,800	2,600	2,200	2,200	2,100	1,900	1,700	2,000
North-west	2,400	2,200	2,000	1,700	1,600	1,400	1,200	1,000	1,100	1,000
Yorkshire and Humberside	1,100	1,400	1,100	1,000	800	600	600	600	700	600
East Midlands	1,100	1,300	1,200	1,200	1,200	1,200	900	800	800	600
West Midlands	700	900	700	800	700	700	600	600	500	500
East of England	1,300	1,500	1,500	1,500	1,500	1,600	1,200	1,300	1,700	1,200
London	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
South-east	1,300	1,500	1,900	1,700	1,700	1,400	1,300	1,300	1,800	1,200
South-west	1,300	1,600	1,500	1,400	1,600	1,500	1,300	1,300	1,400	1,000
England	12,700	13,400	12,700	11,900	11,300	10,600	9,200	8,800	9,700	8,100

⁽²⁹⁾ Figures for 1993 are unusually high due to many dwellings bought by RSLs towards the end of the financial year (1992–93) under the Housing Market Package.

Table 2: Total number of LA and RSL empty homes in England by region

	1 April:
Region	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993(30)	1992
North-east	12,100	12,100	11,400	11,100	10,100	9,400	8,500	7,600	7,700	8,500
North-west	31,500	30,100	26,500	24,500	21,100	19,100	17,100	16,300	19,400	20,500
Yorkshire and Humberside	17,500	17,800	16,600	15,300	14,200	11,800	10,000	10,100	9,900	9,200
East Midlands	8,600	8,700	7,600	7,100	7,300	7,300	5,700	5,300	5,700	4,800
West Midlands	16,100	17,200	14,200	13,200	11,900	10,900	9,600	9,000	9,400	8,800
East of England	5,600	5,900	5,900	5,600	6,000	5,800	5,300	5,400	6,500	4,800
London	18,800	20,200	21,700	22,100	25,100	27,300	26,300	26,600	27,100	23,700
South-east	6,800	7,200	7,600	7,300	7,700	7,200	6,200	6,400	8,000	5,800
South-west	4,600	5,500	5,100	4,700	4,500	4,300	3,900	3,800	3,800	3,500
England	121,600	124,700	116,600	110,900	107,900	103,100	92,600	90,500	97,500	89,600

⁽³⁰⁾ Figures for 1993 are unusually high due to many dwellings bought by RSLs towards the end of the financial year (1992–93) under the Housing Market Package.

Note:

Figures rounded to the nearest 100

Sources:

For Table 1 and Table 2: DTLR's annual Housing Investment Programme (HIP) returns and the Housing Corporation's annual HAR 10 and Regulatory and Statistical Return (RSR)

Housing Stock Transfers

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the local housing authorities who have transferred their council house stock to date to alternative landlords and give in each case (a) the grant from Government to write off debt, (b) the total cost to the local authority in professional fees, (c) other relevant costs of the transfer and (d) the capital receipt. [56695]

Ms Keeble: I have placed in the Libraries of the House lists which show all large scale voluntary transfers completed to date. The details include the four Government one-off payments in transfers where the capital receipt was insufficient to pay off the authority's housing debt, the set up cost for transfer and the capital receipt. Costs to local authorities for professional fees are not held centrally.

Lighting Maintenance

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what has been included in the Single Capital Pot for road, bridge and street lighting maintenance as part of this year's LTP settlement. [57266]

Ms Keeble: All of the block allocation for highway maintenance in the 2002–03 LTP settlement has been included in the Single Capital Pot. The total allocation

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was £545 million made up of indicative amounts of £189 million for principal roads, £243 million for non- principal roads, and £113 million for bridges. There was no indicative allocation for street lighting. In addition £10 million was allocated for major maintenance schemes greater than £5 million: this sum is not included in the Single Capital Pot.

It is for local authorities to decide how much capital resource from the Single Capital Pot they will spend on highway maintenance in the light of their priorities for this and the other services they provide.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions whether an allowance for street lighting will be included in the LTP settlement for 2003–04. [57267]

Ms Keeble: A decision on whether to include an indicative amount for street lighting in the LTP highway maintenance settlement for 2003–04 has not yet been taken. It would depend upon the total resources available and the progress made in other areas of maintenance. The first targets in the 10 Year Plan for Transport are to stop carriageway deterioration by 2004 and to complete bridge strengthening to carry 40 tonne lorries where necessary.

Provision for street lighting replacement is already made within the Highways Maintenance Standard Spending Assessment for Revenue Support Grant. Local authorities are also free to fund street lighting replacement from the Single Capital Pot which has been introduced in 2002–03.

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