| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Oct 2007 : Column 38W—continued
Housing: Energy
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether research has been conducted by her Department and its predecessor into the manner in which the EU directive on energy performance certificates has been implemented in other EU member states. [153717]
Yvette Cooper: The UK is as a member state committed to the implementation of the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings. It participates fully in Article 14 meetings hosted by the European Commission and attends meetings of the Concerted Action network which shares best practice on implementation of the directive.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) enforcement notices were served and (b) prosecutions were brought as a result of non-compliance with the energy efficiency requirements in Part L of the Building Regulations in each year between 2002 and 2007. [153856]
Mr. Iain Wright: Enforcement of compliance with the Building Regulations is undertaken by local authorities. There is no central register of enforcement notices served or prosecutions brought. In the main, local authorities aim to resolve issues that arise through inspection of and advice to those undertaking work. Enforcement notices and prosecution are generally only used as a last resort.
Housing: Floods
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library copies of the submissions to the consultation on the most recent revision to PPS25. [153784]
Mr. Iain Wright: A report summarising the responses to the Planning Policy Statement 25 Development and Flood Risk consultation has been placed in the Library of the House and is also available on the Communities and Local Government website. This is located at:
Responses can be viewed on request at the Eland House offices of Communities and Local Government.
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many homes built in the last 10 years suffered flood damage in June and July 2007; [153843]
(2) what her most recent estimate is of the number of homes that were flooded in England in June and July 2007. [153845]
John Healey: Local authorities have provided their own figures on the number of households affected by flooding (defined as those residential properties where the habitable accommodation has been affected, and excluding those, where—for example—only garage and/or outbuildings were affected). On that basis, information held as of 25 September 2007 estimates that 47,933 households were flooded in June and July. The figures may include some households which flooded on both occasions. We do not hold data which allows us to identify whether individual houses were damaged by the flooding.
The information requested on how many homes built in the last 10 years suffered flood damage in June
and July 2007 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the source is of the dataset Areas of Land at Risk of Flooding held on her Department’s MapsOnTap database. [153915]
Mr. Iain Wright: The source of the data set, Areas of Land at Risk of Flooding, held on the ‘Maps on Tap’ database is the Environment Agency.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of new domestic dwellings were built in areas of flood risk in each Government office region in England in the most recent year for which figures are available. [156518]
Mr. Iain Wright: On a provisional estimate, 9 per cent. of all new dwellings in England in 2005 were built in flood risk areas. A more robust estimate for 2004 shows that 10 per cent. of all new dwellings in England were built in flood risk areas during that year. The following table gives a breakdown by Government office region of the percentage of new dwellings built in flood risk areas for the last 10 years.
Flood risk is a major factor in the location of new development. Flood risk areas account for about 10 per cent. of land in England, including parts of major cities, and around 10 per cent. of the population already live in flood risk areas. The Government’s aim is to avoid inappropriate development in areas of high flood risk. The Government published planning policy statement (PPS25) in December 2006 to strengthen and clarify earlier policy on this issue.
PPS25 ensures that flood risk must be taken into account at all stages of the planning process. Development that would not be safe in the higher flood risk areas should be directed to areas of lower risk wherever this is practicable. In particular, more vulnerable development, such as housing, should not be permitted in high risk areas unless it can be clearly demonstrated that the need for the development outweighs the risk, and it will be safe, without increasing flood risk.
The definition of high flood risk areas and floodplain used by Communities and Local Government is the high risk zone mapped by the Environment Agency as being at a probability of flooding, excluding the presence of flood defences, of at least a one in 100 each year for river flooding and at least a one in 200 for coastal flooding. This is the basis for the definition of ‘high risk areas’ in PPS25.
Housing: Greater London
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new homes were built in each London borough in each of the last five years. [154813]
Mr. Iain Wright: The figures requested are tabulated as follows.
| New build completions by London boroughs 2002-03 to 2006-07 | |||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| Source: Returns to CLG from local authorities and the NHBC. Local authority figures presented are as reported. Regional totals include estimates for missing returns. | |||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |