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20 Dec 2005 : Column 2822W—continued

Homebuyers Information Pack

Mr. Walker: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he plans to postpone the introduction of the Homebuyers Information Pack; and if he will make a statement. [39154]

Yvette Cooper: It was recently announced that Home Information Packs will become mandatory from 1 June 2007, and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no plans to postpone this date. We have listened to views from across the industry, in order to achieve a date that represents the appropriate balance between the various interests. The Government are satisfied that this date provides the time needed to ensure that home information packs can be introduced successfully throughout England and Wales.
 
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2823W
 

Mr. Walker: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what research he has commissioned into the likely impact of the home information pack on house prices; and if he will make a statement. [39259]

Yvette Cooper: No specific research has been commissioned on this, as there is no reason to believe that the introduction of home information packs will have a significant effect on house prices. The only new cost being imposed on the system overall is the cost of a home condition report in a proportion of transactions. Together with the rest of the information in the pack, this will help to ensure that house prices are set more realistically and buyers are not faced with unexpected repair bills and other commitments they cannot afford. The reforms are designed to improve the home buying process by making it more transparent and reducing the current high rate of transaction failure. A more efficient system will benefit the housing market and the UK economy.

Mr. Walker: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the expected benefits of the Home Information Pack. [39260]

Yvette Cooper: The reforms to the home buying and selling process will benefit the home buying process by making it a better experience for the consumer and by creating a more efficient housing market. In particular, packs will:

Increase consumer satisfaction—nearly nine out of 10 consumers are dissatisfied with the present process.

Increase transparency—at present, key information about the property only becomes available after terms have been agreed.

Reduce the current high transaction failure rate—28 per cent. fail after terms have been agreed.

Reduce the huge abortive costs for consumers—over £350 million spent by consumers on failed transactions.

Speed up the transaction process—sales take twice the time of the European average; HIPs should bring us more into line with overseas experience.

Improve consumer redress—estate agents marketing homes with packs will be required, for the first time, to belong to an approved redress scheme.

Improve the position for first time buyers—they will receive pack information free", thus reducing the cost of entry into home ownership.

Support sustainable home ownership—information in the pack, on property condition for example, will ensure that buyers are not faced with unexpected repairs and other commitments they cannot afford.

Create a more efficient housing market—thus facilitating greater flexibility and labour mobility.

Deliver the European Directive requirement for sellers to provide energy performance certificates to home buyers. The home condition report in the pack will contain an energy efficiency report and certificate. This will assist the delivery of the Government's target of a 20 per cent. reduction in residential carbon emissions by 2010. The energy efficiency report will identify cost effective ways of improving energy efficiency.
 
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2824W
 

Housing

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average weekly rent for a two-bed (a) registered social landlord and (b) local authority property was in each (i) London borough and (ii) English region in (A)2001 and (B) 2005. [24267]

Yvette Cooper: The data requested are given in the following tables. On average social rents in London for two bedroom properties in 2004–05 are 44 per cent. of private sector rents.

(i) London boroughs
Table 1: Average weekly rent for a two bedroom property: London boroughs £ a week

	Registered social landlord		Local authority landlord
	2001	2005	2001	2005
Barking and Dagenham	66.45	72.21	54.67	63.56
Barnet	68.83	77.97	58.26	67.87
Bexley	62.55	68.27	LSVT	LSVT
Brent	63.72	76.26	70.28	75.25
Bromley	66.15	74.37	LSVT	LSVT
Camden	68.03	82.98	n/a	73.27
City of London	59.32	74.14	64.46	75.95
Croydon	70.25	78.00	n/a	71.15
Ealing	64.99	78.11	65.47	69.07
Enfield	63.85	75.25	69.25	70.14
Greenwich	62.78	73.95	57.10	65.80
Hackney	58.01	70.00	61.04	64.09
Hammersmith and Fulham	62.02	74.82	60.75	71.83
Haringey	63.69	73.38	59.87	66.60
Harrow	68.14	75.25	68.85	71.07
Havering	63.02	73.00	49.64	54.76
Hillingdon	68.96	80.50	70.45	77.78
Hounslow	66.78	76.84	57.78	67.81
Islington	60.30	72.30	65.12	71.68
Kensington and Chelsea	59.63	73.50	76.69	82.12
Kingston upon Thames	68.72	85.04	66.32	74.89
Lambeth	58.76	68.83	58.43	69.39
Lewisham	58.82	70.27	57.88	64.75
Merton	66.70	76.19	n/a	67.59
Newham	65.65	77.15	55.52	70.45
Redbridge	69.34	79.70	72.06	73.34
Richmond upon Thames	67.01	75.62	LSVT	LSVT
Southwark	60.03	72.56	58.01	65.81
Sutton	67.50	76.86	53.59	n/a
Tower Hamlets	59.03	71.56	68.68	69.50
Waltham Forest	67.29	72.71	65.73	73.95
Wandsworth	66.78	79.90	67.77	84.36
Westminster	69.04	82.10	82.72	92.61
London	63.55	74.49	61.68	69.78

n/a—not available due to no return from the local authority.
LSVT—means that most of the local authority stock has been transferred to the RSL sector.
Notes:
1.Registered social landlord data based on data collected by the Housing Corporation via the annual Regulatory and Statistical Return. Local authority data based on unaudited returns from the Second Subsidy Claim form and are provisional for 2004.
2.Data are at end March.

(ii) English regions
Table 2: Average weekly rent for a two bedroom property:English regions £ per week

	Registered social landlord		Local authority landlord
	2001	2005	2001	2005
North East	47.40	52.13	39.28	45.27
North West	46.47	53.69	43.73	49.50
Yorkshire and the Humber	49.20	50.90	39.87	45.97
East Midlands	50.70	56.82	41.66	48.89
West Midlands	47.96	55.26	42.69	50.31
East Midlands	56.41	62.77	48.60	58.76
London	63.55	74.49	61.68	69.78
South East	61.89	70.39	53.43	62.06
South West	53.87	61.39	45.64	51.32
England	54.43	61.13	47.52	55.26

Notes:
1.Registered Social Landlord data based on data collected by the Housing Corporation via the annual Regulatory and Statistical Return. Local authority data based on unaudited returns from the Second Subsidy Claim form and are provisional for 2005.
2.Data are at end March.
3.Local authority regional rents are not adjusted for missing returns from local authorities.





 
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2825W
 

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many vacant dwellings there were in (a) London and (b) each London borough in each of the last five years (i) in total and (ii) as a proportion of all dwellings. [30739]

Yvette Cooper: The number of empty homes in each London borough and London as a whole for each of the last five years both in actual numbers and as a proportion of all dwellings are tabled as follows. These figures include dwellings which are empty for less than six months, some of them for less than one month. Of the 91,900 empty homes in London, 44,300 have been
 
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2826W
 
empty for more than six months. From April local authorities will have new powers to bring empty homes back into use.

	April 2000		April 2001
	Total empty homes	Empty as percentage of all properties	Total empty homes	Empty as percentage of all properties
Barking and Dagenham	2,172	3.2	1,328	2.0
Barnet	4,068	3.2	3,114	2.3
Bexley	1,185	1.3	1,982	2.2
Brent	6,174	6.0	5,260	5.1
Bromley	3,718	2.9	4,318	3.3
Camden	4,703	5.1	4,335	4.8
City of London	—	—	20	0.4
Croydon	4,130	3.0	4,398	3.2
Ealing	2,308	1.9	2,445	2.0
Enfield	—	—	—	—
Greenwich	4,541	4.9	3,038	3.3
Hackney	3,970	4.6	3,249	3.8
Hammersmith and Fulham4,138		5.4	4,520	5.9
Haringey	4,417	4.7	4,815	5.1
Harrow	1,231	1.5	1,191	1.5
Havering	—	—	2,699	2.9
Hillingdon	2,468	2.5	2,290	2.3
Hounslow	1,903	2.2	1,038	1.2
Islington	2,773	3.3	3,231	3.8
Kensington and Chelsea	1,715	2.2	6,067	6.9
Kingston upon Thames	1,152	1.9	—	—
Lambeth	4,639	3.7	2,518	2.1
Lewisham	3,251	2.9	4,025	3.5
Merton	2,310	3.0	2,095	2.8
Newham	4,663	5.2	5,090	5.6
Redbridge	—	—	—	—
Richmond upon Thames	1,629	2.1	1,751	2.2
Southwark	6,917	6.1	6,364	5.6
Sutton	1,243	1.7	2,238	3.0
Tower Hamlets	5,306	6.9	5,425	6.8
Waltham Forest	3,004	3.3	2,629	2.8
Wandsworth	2,314	1.9	2,051	1.7
Westminster	3,063	2.7	2,957	2.8
London	105,016	3.4	105,181	3.4

	November 2002		November 2003		November 2004
	Total empty homes	Empty as percentage of all properties	Total empty homes	Empty as percentage of all properties	Total empty homes	Empty as percentage of all properties
Barking and Dagenham	1,578	2.3	1,798	2.6	1,623	2.4
Barnet	5,093	3.9	3,512	2.7	3,607	2.7
Bexley	2,064	2.2	2,268	2.4	2,161	2.3
Brent	5,559	5.4	2,733	2.6	3,568	3.4
Bromley	3,960	3.1	4,207	3.2	3,825	2.9
Camden	5,093	5.4	3,389	3.6	3,049	3.2
City of London	63	1.3	141	2.6	165	2.9
Croydon	4,611	3.3	4,722	3.4	4,647	3.3
Ealing	3,196	2.7	3,308	2.7	3,416	2.8
Enfield	4,350	3.8	3,577	3.1	4,494	3.8
Greenwich	3,417	3.6	2,922	3.0	3,084	3.2
Hackney	3,783	4.2	3,220	3.5	3,407	3.7
Hammersmith and Fulham	3,015	3.9	3,526	4.6	2,946	3.8
Haringey	3,433	3.6	3,539	3.7	1,966	2.0
Harrow	2,195	2.7	2,462	3.0	1,484	1.8
Havering	2,300	2.4	2,407	2.5	2,568	2.7
Hillingdon	2,791	2.8	3,009	3.0	2,532	2.5
Hounslow	3,510	4.0	1,932	2.2	2,125	2.4
Islington	2,908	3.4	4,020	4.6	2,677	3.1
Kensington and Chelsea	4,576	5.4	3,308	3.9	3,064	3.6
Kingston upon Thames	2,169	3.5	2,333	3.8	2,394	3.8
Lambeth	4,488	3.7	5,037	4.1	3,291	2.6
Lewisham	2,832	2.6	3,084	2.8	1,586	1.4
Merton	2,529	3.3	2,593	3.4	1,362	1.8
Newham	3,280	3.5	2,535	2.7	2,645	2.7
Redbridge	2,301	2.4	2,533	2.7	1,992	2.1
Richmond upon Thames	3,497	4.5	3,086	3.9	2,166	2.7
Southwark	3,478	3.0	4,973	4.3	4,439	3.8
Sutton	2,285	3.0	2,234	2.9	2,351	3.1
Tower Hamlets	5,072	5.9	2,669	3.0	2,047	2.3
Waltham Forest	1,984	2.1	2,144	2.3	2,078	2.2
Wandsworth	5,202	4.2	—	—	—	—
Westminster	4,804	4.2	4,544	4.0	3,974	3.4
London	111,416	3.6	102,967	3.3	91,935	2.9

Source:
Figures for 2002, 2003 and 2004 are based on ODPM's CTB1 return. For 2001 and 2002 the figures are based on a combination of two sources. ODPM's Housing Strategy Statistical return for all tenure types except RSL and the latter comes from the Housing Corporation's Regulatory Statistical Return.





 
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2827W
 

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what discussions he has had with Sefton council on its proposal to ballot its tenants on the large-scale voluntary transfer of council housing; and what investigations he has conducted into the conduct of the last ballot. [31914]

Yvette Cooper: Ministers in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have had no discussions with Sefton council on its proposal to ballot tenants. Sefton council have discussed with officials in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister the circumstances surrounding their initial ballot. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has not undertaken any investigation into the conduct of that ballot. Sefton council have informed officials of their decision to re-ballot tenants on the large scale voluntary transfer of the Council's housing stock.

Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he has set targets for the total output of social rented housing for (a) 2005–06, (b) 2006–07 and (c) 2007–08. [39128]

Yvette Cooper: Additional funding secured through the Spending Review 2004 will, along with efficiency improvements, provide 75,000 social rented properties over the three years 2005 to 2008, that is, an additional 10,000 homes a year by 2008, a 50 per cent. increase on 2004–05.

Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what level of social housing grant from the Housing Corporation was required to produce one unit of rented accommodation in the latest period for which the information is available. [39129]

Yvette Cooper: In 2004–05, the national average social housing grant allocated per unit of rented accommodation was £64,325.

The cost of a unit of social rented accommodation varies widely, dependent on location, size, or type of property, and other issues. The proportion of that cost paid through social housing grant also varies due to a range of factors.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many new houses have been built in Hereford since 1997; and what percentage of these are classified as affordable housing. [38919]

Yvette Cooper: The information on Hereford alone is not held centrally. Information on housing starts and completions for Herefordshire can be viewed on the housing statistics pages of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website. Herefordshire council's Local
 
20 Dec 2005 : Column 2828W
 
Development Framework Annual Monitoring Report 2004–05 published in December 2005 contains information on housing completions for Hereford and on affordable housing for the county. The report is available on the council's website.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the impact of the level of private enterprise building in Herefordshire on the availability of affordable housing there. [38920]

Yvette Cooper: No such assessment has been made by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. This is primarily a matter for Herefordshire council as the local housing and planning authority. Herefordshire council's Local Development Framework Annual Monitoring Report 2004–05 published in December 2005 contains information relevant to this matter and can be viewed on the council's website.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what progress has been made in his negotiations on the housing market renewal budget for Merseyside for 2006 to 2008. [36889]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 12 December 2005]: Merseyside Housing Market Renewal pathfinder has put forward its bid for funding for 2006 to 2008, alongside other pathfinders. All the proposals are being scrutinised and announcements will be made on the budgets for the next phase when that is concluded.

Mr. Holloway: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many new residential dwellings will be built in each of the next 20 years in (a) Gravesham and (b) Kent following the Government's response to Kate Barker's review of Housing Supply. [37525]

Yvette Cooper: The Government responded to Kate Barker's review of Housing Supply on 5 December, outlining its ambition to increase housing delivery in England over the next decade to 200,000 net additions per year, from current delivery of around 150,000 net additions per year.

This policy will inform regional and local plans for housing, however the numbers set out in the response represent Government's ambition nationally. Detailed figures at a local level are determined through statutory planning processes.

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