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4 Jun 2007 : Column 186W—continued
Housing: Construction
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she expects to issue guidance on red ash testing. [139026]
Angela E. Smith: The Department is expecting to issue guidance on sulphate bearing hardcores, which includes references to red ash, at the end of October 2007.
Housing: Eltham
Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many properties in Eltham have been improved as a result of the Government’s Decent Homes programme; and how much she estimates will have been spent when it is completed. [126683]
Yvette Cooper: We do not hold decency figures by parliamentary constituency but by local authority area and local authorities started reporting on decent homes in 2002.
The council housing stock owned by the royal borough of Greenwich in 2006 was 25,007. Between 2002 and 2006 the number of non-decent council homes was reduced by 11,043.
The cost per house of meeting the decent homes standard varies across the country and the Department does not collect those figures separately. Some local authorities are refurbishing the houses in their area significantly above the decent homes standard. What the improved standard is and how it will be achieved will be determined by local circumstances and the level of resources that can be brought to the programme locally. The Government expect over £40 billion to be spent on refurbishing social homes by 2010, this includes raising houses above the decent homes standard.
Housing: Low Incomes
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many units of affordable housing for (a) rent and (b) sale were built with funding generated by recycled capital grant in (i) 2005-06 and (ii) 2006-07; [133525]
(2) how much recycled capital grant was spent by registered social landlords to fund investment in refurbishment of existing stock in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07. [133526]
Yvette Cooper [holding answer 23 April 2007]: The following table shows the number of homes provided for rent and sale through recycled capital grant funding without additional social housing grant in 2005-06. Figures for 2006-07 are not yet available.
| Homes provided through RCGF | |
| 2005-06 | |
| Source: Housing Corporation. | |
Registered social landlords spent a total of £50.5 million of their recycled capital grant fund on re-improvements and major repairs of existing stock in 2005-06. Figures for 2006-07 are not yet available.
Housing: Multiple Occupation
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment her Department has made of the work of local authorities' co-ordinators of regulatory services in relation to their role in monitoring the licensing of houses in multiple occupation. [139685]
Yvette Cooper: The Department agreed a programme of work for the local authorities' co-ordinators of regulatory services (LACORS) for 2005-06. The programme has been delivered as agreed. It did not specifically include any remit to monitor individual local authorities' performance in implementation of the licensing regime. Communities and Local Government is presently working with LACORS to agree a programme of work in 2007-08.
Housing: North East Region
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government by how much average house prices have increased (a) in the Tees Valley and (b) the area corresponding as closely as possible to Middlesbrough and South East Cleveland over the last 10 years. [139811]
Mr. Woolas: The statistics which are readily available for these specific geographic areas cover house sales since April 2000 and therefore represent six financial years from 2000-01 to 2005-06. In Tees Valley, the overall percentage increase in house prices over this period was 100.3 per cent. The corresponding percentage increase figure for Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland was 114.7 per cent.
Housing: North West Region
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will take steps to increase the number of shared equity family homes in (a) Warrington South and (b) other North West housing hot spots. [138766]
Yvette Cooper [holding answer 22 May 2007]: The Government are committed to tackling affordability. We aim to increase the supply of new homes in England to 200,000 per annum by 2016.
The Government are expanding the Low Cost Home Ownership programme to help more people into partial ownership on a shared equity basis. The main driver for this will be the flagship, Homebuy programme. The Housing Corporation has allocated £9.7 million to help households buy a home on the open market in the North West, of which over £1.3 million should be spent in Cheshire, and a further £1.8 million to help existing tenants buy a share of their existing home.
The Government are also supporting affordable housing provision through the Housing Corporation's National Affordable Housing programme. Overall, the Corporation hopes to complete 3,782 houses for rent and 1,137 houses for sale in its 2006-08 North West programme worth £224 million.
Housing: Public Service
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent assessment she has made of the availability of housing for (a) nurses, (b) teachers, (c) police officers, (d) firefighters and (e) paramedics. [134193]
Yvette Cooper: We do not hold data on the availability of housing for these key worker groups. Any such assessment would be for key worker employers to carry out. However, we do know that the housing market has not responded sufficiently to meet the needs of the country's ageing and growing population and one of the consequences of this has been recruitment and retention problems in front-line public services.
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