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Housing

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what targets his Department has set with respect to new levels of house building within (a) the Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (b) the East of England. [15103]

Yvette Cooper: The current review of the regional spatial strategy for the east of England will determine how many homes should be built in the east of England and each district council area. It will then be for St. Edmundsbury and Mid Suffolk councils to determine whether those homes are built within their respective areas.

Mr. Hands: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many housing schemes approved by local authorities in the most recent year for which figures are available were comprised of (a) 13 housing units, (b) 14 housing units and (c) 15 housing units. [15760]

Yvette Cooper: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Sarah Teather: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what recent estimate he has made of the amount raised per year by licensing fees for homes in multiple occupation. [15838]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 5 July 2005, Official Report, column 308W.

Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many houses his Department has planned should be built in (a) the county of Bedfordshire, (b) South Bedfordshire district, (c) Mid-Bedfordshire district, (d) the borough of Bedford and (e) the constituency of Mid-Bedfordshire. [11017]

Yvette Cooper: The Milton Keynes and South Midlands (MKSM) sub-regional strategy together with the draft East of England plan, known also as draft revisions to regional spatial strategy (RSS) for the East
 
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of England, set out the planned scale of house building in Bedfordshire for the period 2001–2021. The MKSM sub-regional strategy was published in March 2005 and forms part of the development plan for the area. The figures proposed by the East of England regional assembly in the draft East of England plan will be tested at an examination in public commencing in November this year. The final East of England plan is expected to be published early in 2007.

Simon Hughes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what responsibilities he has to ensure the implementation of article 217 of the Housing Act 2004. [14206]

Yvette Cooper: Section 217 of the Housing Act 2004 requires the Government to take reasonable steps to ensure that by 2010 the general level of energy efficiency of residential accommodation in England has increased by at least 20 per cent. compared with the general level of such energy efficiency in 2000. Such an increase is broadly in line with the energy efficiency aim for England that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set out in the 2004 Energy Efficiency Action Plan, in compliance with section 2(1) of the Sustainable Energy Act 2003.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister contributes to the Government's drive to improve the energy efficiency of residential accommodation through its promotion of the Sustainable Buildings Code, the raising of the standards required by the Building Regulations and the delivery of improved heating and insulation through the Decent Homes programme.

Susan Kramer: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average monthly rent for (a) a room in a shared house, (b) a one bedroom dwelling, (c) a two bedroom dwelling and (d) a three bedroom dwelling in each London borough was in the most recent year for which figures are available. [15866]

Yvette Cooper: Information on private sector rents is only collected on a sample basis and is not available for London boroughs. Social rents for local authority housing and registered social landlord housing are given in the attached spreadsheet in the form of average weekly rent excluding service charges. Information on shared accommodation is not available and bedsits have been excluded.
Latest average weekly rent for social dwellings £

	Local authority			Registered social landlord
	April 2003			April 2004
	Number of bedrooms in dwelling
London Borough	1	2	3	1	2	3
Barking and Dagenham	56.10	58.78	59.92	54.22	69.81	76.43
Barnet	52.69	62.29	70.63	62.12	74.57	87.40
Bexley	no stock	no stock	no stock	45.31	65.84	88.64
Brent	60.91	69.73	81.16	62.18	72.36	83.32
Bromley	no stock	no stock	no stock	57.56	71.57	82.35
Camden	61.62	71.08	80.42	65.47	76.89	87.65
City of London	62.71	69.73	75.38	63.14	67.21	79.69
Croydon	57.63	65.54	79.95	60.08	75.31	87.58
Ealing	57.48	64.05	72.64	62.01	73.56	86.65
Enfield	56.28	66.19	72.61	59.19	71.67	84.16
Greenwich	56.56	60.89	69.86	60.72	70.64	80.05
Hackney	53.37	56.70	63.81	58.91	65.49	75.42
Hammersmith and Fulham	57.74	65.01	74.00	60.50	70.62	79.59
Haringey	51.02	60.18	71.23	58.21	69.75	81.33
Harrow	66.56	74.34	87.50	60.54	69.77	83.71
Havering	44.53	53.66	64.18	58.26	69.39	86.98
Hillingdon	62.93	74.07	87.68	60.28	76.35	86.07
Hounslow	52.32	62.30	72.89	61.66	73.63	82.24
Islington	57.36	67.74	75.62	60.33	69.01	77.54
Kensington and Chelsea	63.84	83.19	91.14	59.53	68.49	78.33
Kingston upon Thames	60.52	67.20	79.00	62.88	76.63	87.30
Lambeth	55.88	62.82	73.67	57.42	65.57	75.53
Lewisham	50.97	58.52	66.36	56.68	66.61	78.86
Merton	50.42	60.62	69.36	58.85	73.02	83.41
Newham	49.56	59.37	69.84	60.02	72.22	81.01
Redbridge	64.53	73.21	80.07	64.42	75.03	90.10
Richmond upon Thames	no stock	no stock	no stock	64.98	72.31	76.24
Southwark	55.72	59.03	63.67	57.90	68.36	78.91
Sutton	n/a	n/a	n/a	58.93	73.56	85.30
Tower Hamlets	57.50	70.42	80.99	59.69	67.88	78.30
Waltham Forest	50.93	70.31	86.36	57.14	69.82	83.75
Wandsworth	52.51	76.45	92.35	64.19	74.98	86.35
Westminster	72.95	86.76	100.19	65.33	77.62	84.62

n/a=not available
Sources:
Local authority rents from the ODPM Second Advance Claim Form
Registered social Landlord rents from the Regulatory Statistical Return of the Housing Corporation





 
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Alan Simpson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the oral answer from the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) of 29 June 2005, Official Report, columns 1295–96, what methodology was used to calculate the figure of £6.5 billion levered into the housing sector via stock transfers. [15140]

Yvette Cooper: The £6.5 billion levered into the housing sector via housing transfer represents the private finance secured by registered social landlords for large-scale voluntary transfers since 1997 as notified to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister when consent for the transfer was sought. This figure does not include any private finance raised for the purchase of the housing.

Invoice Payment

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of invoices were paid on time by his Department in the most recent year for which figures are available. [15226]

Jim Fitzpatrick: For financial year 2004–05 the percentage of valid invoices paid on time was 98.56 per cent.

IT Failures

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what computerisation or IT failures have occurred in public sector projects managed by his Department in each year since 1997; what the contracted cost of the project was in each case; and what estimate he has made of the directand indirect costs of failure or breakdown in each case. [14364]

 
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Jim Fitzpatrick: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was formed on 29 May 2002. Records for IT projects below £90,000 are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

There have been no failures of IT projects above that threshold recorded since the creation of the Office. Like many public bodies the ODPM uses recognised project management methods, such as prince2 and the gateway process promoted by the Office of Government Commerce, to ensure that projects are successful. In addition the ODPM created a project and programme management (PPM) team in February 2004 to support the embedding of project and programme management skills in the ODPM.

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