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26 July 2007 : Column 1434W—continued
| Local authority | Project name | PFI credits (£m) | Annual subsidy to LA (£m) | Projected number of units | Projected construction profile | |||||
| 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 20012-13 | 2013-14 | |||||
Housing: Standards
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether properties assessed as a category 1 hazard under the housing health and safety rating system will not meet the decent homes standard; and how many properties fell into this category in 2006-07. [151710]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Guidance, “A Decent Home: Definition and guidance for implementation (June 2006—Update)” advises that properties assessed as a Category 1 hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System will be considered non-decent in failing to meet the minimum statutory standard. First estimates for the number of properties non-decent on this criterion will become available from the 2006 English House Condition Survey with headline results due to be published in January 2008. The Guidance can be found on the Communities and Local Government website at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/191/ADecentHomeDefinitionandguidanceforimplementation June2006update_id1152191.pdf
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans her Department has to introduce new (a) league tables and (b) inspection regimes for (i) council housing and (ii) social housing. [152678]
Mr. Iain Wright: In “Delivering Housing and Regeneration—Communities England and the Future of Social Housing Regulation”, launched on 19 June 2007, the Government proposed accepting Professor Cave’s proposals for regulatory reform and began a consultation to determine stakeholders’ views. Under these proposals, the regulator would:
(a) collect information from social landlords to allow it to intervene to prevent poor performance, and to allow tenants and others to compare the performance of social landlords at a local level
(b) commission inspections of social landlords where there are indications of poor performance, but good performers will have few or no inspections
Professor Cave recommended that the reformed regulatory system should apply to all social housing, whether provided by local authorities, housing associations or other bodies, so that tenants could compare services across the social housing domain and expect the same level of minimum service standards. The Government have proposed immediately accepting the new system for housing associations, but is exploring in more detail how local authority and ALMO performance could be regulated.
Land: Databases
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which organisation has been awarded the contract by English Partnerships to conduct a study of the National Land Use Database; and what the remit is of the review. [152940]
Mr. Iain Wright: Kingston university has been appointed to conduct the review of the National Land Use Database of Previously-Developed Land (NLUD-PDL). Its remit is to review the data collection and management methodology of NLUD-PDL, specifically to improve its timeliness, quality and usefulness both to central Government and to local authorities.
Local Government: Interpreters
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department and its agencies have given to (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations on providing interpreters and translation services for those who do not speak English. [152403]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department for Communities and Local Government has not issued any guidance to local authorities and housing associations on the provision of interpretation and translation services since its inception in May 2006.
In December 2006 the Secretary of State for Local Government asked the Commission on Integration and Cohesion to consider this issue alongside its final report. The Commission published its final report in June 2007 which includes a set of principles on translation for local authorities and recommends that the Government develops these principles into guidance. The Government will respond to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion's recommendations in the autumn.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she plans to reply to the letter of 20 June 2007 from the hon. Member for Hertsmere on gypsy and traveller sites in Hertfordshire. [152643]
Mr. Iain Wright: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 28 June 2007.
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