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25 Oct 2005 : Column 332W—continued
Homelessness
Lorely Burt: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what further measures the Government plans to introduce to tackle homelessness in London. [19280]
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Yvette Cooper: Our strategy 'Sustainable communities:
settled homes; changing lives' sets out our aims to reduce homelessness and halve the number of households in temporary accommodation by 2010.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will work with London boroughs,
Government Office for London, Greater London authority, Association of Local Government and other organisations in London to deliver the strategy and further reduce levels of rough sleeping in the capital.
Housing
Mr. Laws: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many people in England have been registered as homeless and needing accommodation in each year from 1999–2000 to 2005–06, broken down by local authority area; and if he will make a statement. [18625]
Yvette Cooper: Information collected about local authorities' actions under homelessness legislation is in respect of households rather than persons. A table presenting reported information on the number of households accepted by each local authority in England as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and consequently owed a main homelessness duty in each year since 1999–2000, has been placed in the Library of the House.
The duty owed to a person accepted as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need is to secure suitable accommodation. If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority may secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available. As an alternative to the provision of temporary accommodation some authorities arrange for households to remain in their current accommodation (homeless at home), until a settled solution becomes available.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average time taken to place homeless families in permanent accommodation was in each local authority in England in the last period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [18626]
Yvette Cooper: Information reported quarterly by local authorities on their activities under homelessness legislation includes the number of households that, during the quarter, left temporary accommodation provided by the authority, or who were no longer registered as homeless at home", by the length of stay in broad time bands. The information covers all households, which will include families but also single person households. These households will have been provided with some form of settled accommodation, or those who left the accommodation voluntarily, as well as those who ceased to be eligible or who became intentionally homeless.
A table which presents the proportion of households in each time band during 2004–05 (the latest year available), for each local authority in England, has been placed in the Library of the House.
Ms Barlow:
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many affordable housing units expected to be built or procured through the Housing Corporation Approved Development Programme and Challenge Fund will be
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(a) mixed funded social rented housing, (b) temporary social rented housing, (c) homebuy general market purchase, (d) homebuy general new build, (e) mixed funded low cost home ownership for sale, (f) miscellaneous works to Registered Social Landlord (RSL) stock, (g) reimprovements to rented RSL stock, (h) works only rehabilitation of rented RSL stock, (i) works only rehabilitation of RSL stock for sale, (j) intermediate rent for key workers, (k) homebuy market purchase for key workers, (l) homebuy new build for key workers, (m) mixed funded sale for key workers, (n) right to acquire, (o) voluntary purchase grant, (p) starter home initiative, (q) do-it-yourself shared ownership and (r) temporary intermediate and market rent housing in the south-east region in (i) 2005–06, (ii) 2006–07 and (iii) 2007–08; and how much will be spent on each category in each year. [18679]
Yvette Cooper: The tables show the latest estimated completions and expenditure in the south-east region for 2005–06 through the Housing Corporation Approved Development Programme, including Challenge Fund, for categories from (a) to (r) . Funding and completions are not directly comparable, as funding will relate to projects running, not necessarily units completed, in any one year.
Source:
Housing Corporation Information Management System as at 12 October 2005. Categories f, g, h, and i are not counted as completions and figures are only provided for illustrative purposes.
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For 2006–07 and 2007–08 Regional Housing Boards have made recommendations to Ministers for the allocation of Regional Housing Pots funds. The South East Regional Housing Board has recommended that from their allocation of £805 million for the two years a total of £744 million should be allocated to the provision of affordable housing. However, the exact distribution of funding between programmes for 2006–08 will not be known until the completion of the Housing Corporation's bidding process.
In August 2005 the Housing Corporation launched the bidding round for the 2006–08 Affordable Housing Programme (AHP). This invited both registered social landlords and non-registered bodies to apply for funds to develop affordable housing based on priorities set by the Regional Housing Boards. The outcome of this bidding round will not be known until early in 2006.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of (a) local authority housing, (b) housing association housing and (c) private rented accommodation reaches the Decent Homes Standard, broken down by region; and what proportion in each case he estimates will reach the standard by 2010. [20499]
Yvette Cooper: Data from the 2003 English House Condition Survey (EHCS) are currently only available at a national level. These data have been published in EHCS 2003: key findings", a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. A regional breakdown of 2003 EHCS will be published in due course.
In the social sector, work completed and plans in place will take The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 90 per cent. of the way to meeting our target . We are now focusing our efforts on the remaining 10 per cent.
In the private sector we are on course for 70 per cent. of vulnerable households to have decent homes by 2010.
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what representations he has received from the Regional Housing Board on the amount of affordable housing needed in (a) Kent and (b) Gravesham. [19832]
Yvette Cooper: The South East Regional Housing Board made recommendations to my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on the provision of affordable housing in its South East Regional Housing Strategy published on 30 June 2005. One of the key priorities identified in the strategy is the need to increase the provision of affordable housing in the region. In recognition of this, the board recommended that almost 92 per cent. of its funding should be used to increase provision of affordable homes. The Regional Housing Board has prioritised the growth areas (Ashford, Dartford, Gravesham, Medway, Swale) and other areas in Kent (Maidstone, Canterbury) for affordable housing funding.
The amount of affordable housing needed is determined locally in local housing strategies and development plans, and it is for local authorities in consultation with the Housing Corporation to agree numbers of units. The amount of housing brought forward depends upon the number and quality of bids made to the Housing Corporation for funding. Each bid
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is assessed against a number of criteria including value for money, design quality, environmental fitness and deliverability.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the affordability of shared ownership schemes in areas of high house prices; and if he will make a statement. [20837]
Yvette Cooper: It is important that low cost home ownership schemes are affordable for our identified client groups, including social tenants and key public sector workers.
While traditional shared ownership schemes have been successful we do accept that there may be cases where people in higher value areas find it difficult to access schemes, or difficult to increase their share of ownership after initial purchase.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Housing Corporation keep the general operation of the schemes under review to ensure that they meet our policy objectives and the needs of the intended client groups.
The issue of affordability of low cost home ownership schemes has also been examined:
through the work of the Home Ownership Task Force, that reported in November 2003. Its report is available from the Housing Corporation's website.
through the analysis of responses to our 'Homebuy—Expanding the Opportunity to Own' consultation paper, a copy of which is available from the Library of the House.
As a result of this, our new range of Homebuy schemes—which will be available from April 2006—aim to be more affordable for purchasers, while remaining viable for providers.
We have also set out how we will ensure that households accessing Homebuy are able to sustain home ownership. Applicants will be subject to a series of rigorous and transparent checks at the outset, to ensure that they are able to shoulder the financial responsibilities. We will also put in place a range of measures to provide assistance to those who encounter financial difficulties after they have purchased.
Full details of the new range of Homebuy schemes are set out in the Government's response to the consultation, available on the Office's website.
We will continue to monitor and assess the new range of Homebuy schemes to ensure that they provide affordable and accessible routes to home ownership.
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much was allocated to council house refits for disabled people in (a) Kent and (b) Gravesham in the last year for which figures are available; and what proportion this represents of the total council housing budget in each case. [19798]
Yvette Cooper:
Expenditure on disabled/elderly adaptations for Gravesham and for all stock-owning local authorities within Kent (including Gravesham) is shown in the following table, along with the total capital expenditure and the proportion of the total capital
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spend that was used for disabled/elderly adaptations. These data were reported to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by local authorities.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will estimate (a) the amount of outside funding brought into social housing by large-scale voluntary transfers in the last two years and (b) the contributions by Government to the costs of arms length management organisations in the last two years. [20126]
Yvette Cooper: The amount of private finance brought into social housing by large-scale voluntary transfers (LSVT) was £409 million (2003–04) and £1.2 billion (2004–05).
The contribution by Government to the ALMO programme was £321 million (2003–04) and £577 million (2004–05).
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