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Decent Homes Standard

Simon Hughes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his estimate is of the cost of meeting the decent homes standard in each local authority area. [193242]

Keith Hill: Stock-owning local authorities report to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister the cost of meeting the decent homes standard in the council stock. This covers the cost to bring existing non-decent dwellings up to the decent homes standard, but does not cover work to prevent currently decent dwellings from falling into non-decency. This information has been made available in the Library of the House.
 
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Disabilities Facilities Grant

Mr. Spring: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the cost of abolishing the means test on parents of disabled children for the disabilities facilities grant. [192893]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, jointly with the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Skills is undertaking a comprehensive review of the Disabled Facilities Grant programme. This will include a consideration of a number of changes to the means test including a full analysis of costs. The Review Group will report to Ministers in May 2005.

Disability Housing Registers

Paul Holmes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what steps he is taking to promote the use of disability housing registers; [193570]

(2) how many local authorities in England operate disability housing registers; and if he will make a statement. [193573]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister recognises that it is extremely important that people with disabilities and access needs are housed appropriately and that they have the right level of priority for housing under an allocation scheme. Furthermore, the Government want to see housing authorities, and other social landlords, make the best use of our housing stock, and this includes stock which is accessible or has been adapted.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister considers that local authorities would find it useful to operate a disability housing register and should be encouraged to do so, but ultimately it should be up to the authority itself to decide whether it makes sense to do so.

(1) The statutory Code of Guidance on the Allocation of Accommodation (paragraph 6.11) recommends that housing authorities maintain lists of properties that are suitable for people with disabilities and other special needs groups and that these could be made available to relevant applicants of social housing, free of charge. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will consult with the Disability Rights Commission and other interested parties on how to strengthen the Code of Guidance to ensure that disabled people are housed appropriately and to make better use of properties which have been designed or adapted for disabled people. A revised Code of Guidance will be issued next year.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is developing a national standard for measuring accessibility through the National Register of Social Housing (NROSH) which should be available by September 2005. NROSH will be a central record of social housing and will collect information on the attributes of each dwelling including size, type and rent. These attributes include three measures of accessibility; first, whether the dwelling meets one of the recognised standards (Lifetime Homes, Housing Corporation Design Standards or Building Regulations—Part M); secondly, counts of the number of steps outside and within the dwelling or block; and finally a record of adaptations which have been carried out. By establishing a national standard for recording
 
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accessibility NROSH will assist local authorities in the setting up of local registers. The surveying of properties to collect accessibility information and provision of this to NROSH will be at the discretion of local authorities.

(2) The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not collect this information.

Gypsies

Mr. Luff: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many local plans the Government Office for the West Midlands has objected to on the grounds of their Gypsy policies. [193107]

Keith Hill: The Government Office has made a small number of objections to draft development plans prepared under provisions in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in relation to policies for Gypsy sites. The objections related to issues of compliance with current guidance contained in the Department's Circular 1/94, "Gypsy Sites and Planning". It asks local planning authorities to assess the need for Gypsy accommodation in their areas and, wherever possible, to identify in their plans locations suitable for Gypsy sites, whether local authority or private sites. Where this is not possible authorities are asked to set out clear, realistic criteria for suitable locations as a basis for site provision policies. No objections have been made to policies for Gypsy sites in draft local plans prepared by Wychavon district council in the hon. Member's constituency. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has announced a review of Circular 1/94.

Housing Bill

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of how many surveyors will be required as a result of the seller's packs provisions included in the Housing Bill; how many are available at the present time; and what estimate he has made of how long it will take to train sufficient surveyors. [193781R]

Keith Hill: The industry estimates that around 7,500 home inspectors (some working full time some working part time) will be needed to compile home condition reports for home information packs in England and Wales. As this new qualification is dependent on the passage of the Housing Bill, there are no qualified home inspectors yet. However, independent research by Asset Skills, the relevant sector skills council, shows that between 10,000 and 18,000 people working in property services or related industries are expected to convert to work as home inspectors. This indicates that there will be sufficient qualified inspectors available to provide the required number of home condition reports when the reforms are implemented in January 2007. All home inspectors will have to belong to a certification scheme and will have to obtain the required home inspection qualification before they can become members. The length of training will depend on the candidate's level of existing knowledge and experience. This could range between a matter of months for a RICS surveyor already doing similar work, to the equivalent of a full time two year course followed by a period of "on the job" training for someone with no previous experience.
 
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Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what implementation date the Government plan for the provisions of the Housing Bill relating to seller's packs; and what assessment he has made of whether sufficient professional indemnity insurance will be available in the market by that date. [193782R]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister anticipates that the home information pack reforms will be implemented in January 2007. But we will not introduce compulsory home condition reports until we are satisfied that all the necessary elements are in place, including satisfactory indemnity insurance for home inspectors. This continues to be the subject of extensive research and discussion and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has established programme management arrangements involving consumer representatives and key industry stakeholders to provide help and guidance on this. Assisted by the Association of British Insurers and our industry working group, discussions with commercial insurers are taking place aimed at identifying options based on a commercial approach. The possible basis for an insurance regime will be published when this work is complete. Discussions with leading commercial insurers indicate that they are broadly comfortable with the proposals and that there is an appetite to insure home inspectors.

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the Government intend to establish a national database of the information contained in the seller's pack provided for in the Housing Bill; and whether the packs will have to be available in electronic form to purchasers. [193807]

Keith Hill: There will not be a national database of the information contained in home information packs. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is proposing to make provision in the Housing Bill for a register of home condition reports. Our intention is that the register will comprise an electronic databank of all home condition reports prepared by registered home inspectors. In order to respect privacy, and data-protection legislation, access to information obtained from the register would be strictly controlled. Home information packs may be in an electronic format but potential buyers will be entitled to ask for a paper copy of the pack (or part of the pack) if they prefer.

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