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9 Oct 2007 : Column 562W—continued
Fire Services: Perfluoro Octane Sulphanate
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on how many occasions in each of the last 10 years fire-fighting operations involved the use of materials containing perfluoro octane sulphanate. [155722]
Mr. Dhanda: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Fire Services: Working Time Directive
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether there is a derogation from the Working Time Directive for retained firefighters who have other employment. [155699]
Mr. Dhanda: Retained duty system firefighters are able to work beyond the 48 hours a week set by the working time regulations provided they have signed a waiver for their primary and secondary employment.
Flood Control
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her Department's definition is of the probability of (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high flood risk in terms of the frequency in years at which an area is likely to flood. [156578]
Mr. Iain Wright: The definitions of (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high risk probability are defined in Table D.I. of Planning Policy Statement 25 (PPS25) ‘Development and Flood Risk’, which Communities and Local Government published in December 2006.
The definitions are as follows:
(a) Low Probability (Flood Zone 1)
This zone comprises land assessed as having a less than one in 1,000 annual probability of river or sea flooding in any year (<0.1%)
(b) Medium probability (Flood Zone 2)
This zone comprises land assessed as having between a one in 100 and one in 1,000 annual probability of river flooding (1 per cent. to 0.1 per cent. or between a one in 200 and one in 1,000 annual probability of sea flooding (0.5 per cent. to 1 per cent.) in any year.
(c) High probability (Flood Zone 3a)
This zone comprises land assessed as having a one in 100 or greater annual probability of river flooding (>1%) or a one in 200 or greater annual probability of flooding from the sea (>0.5%) in any year.
These flood zones refer to the probability of river and sea flooding, ignoring the presence of defences as these can be breached, overtopped and may not be in existence for the lifetime of the development.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningand building/pdf/154271
Green Belt
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many hectares of designated Green Belt land lost their Green Belt designation in each Government Office Region in England in each year since 1997. [155705]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table shows the net amount of designated green belt land lost by Government office region in hectares for the years for which data is available.
| Net area loss of designated green belt by Government office region | |||
| Net losses in hectares between: | |||
| Government office region | 1997 and 2003 | 2003 and 2004 | 2004 and 2006 |
| (1) The 2004 to 2006 figure includes 47,300 hectares of designated green belt land in New Forest DC and Test Valley DC which was designated as New Forest National Park in 2005. | |||
Excluding the 47,300 hectares of green belt land which was designated as National Park in 2005, the total amount of green belt increased across England by 27,850 hectares over the nine-year period 1997 to 2006.
Home Information Packs
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance has been produced for local authorities on the enforcement of the home information pack regulations. [152384]
Yvette Cooper: The Department has produced procedural guidance for the home information pack regulations, including guidance on the enforcement provisions within the regulations. The Department has also produced guidance for enforcement authorities, following consultations with Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) and the Trading Standards Institute (TSI).
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the maximum time is that a local authority and water search in a home information pack can remain in place before it must be renewed. [156562]
Yvette Cooper: The HIPs (No. 2) Regulations 2007 do not specify how long a search report should remain in place before it must be renewed but require that a search must not be older than three months at the first point of marketing.
Home Information Packs: Finance
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 26 June 2007, Official Report, column 633W, on home information packs: finance, by what mechanism funding is being provided to trading standards officers in Wales. [152684]
Yvette Cooper: Funding for trading standards officers in Wales is provided through the annual revenue settlement. Responsibility for the revenue settlement in Wales rests with the Welsh Assembly Government. In 2007-08 the settlement amounted to £3.7 billion.
Home Information Packs: Trading Standards Institute
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department has issued to trading standards officers on the enforcement of home information pack regulations. [152517]
Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today (UIN 152384).
Home Information Packs: Valuation
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government under what circumstances mortgage lenders and automated valuation suppliers may use information from the Energy Performance Certificate register for automated valuations. [153816]
Yvette Cooper: The disclosure of Energy Performance Certificates and information obtained from them, whether obtained directly from the register or otherwise, is limited to the purposes set down in the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2007.
Homelessness: Expenditure
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent in London on rough sleepers by (a) central Government and (b) local authorities in each of the last five years. [156718]
Mr. Iain Wright: Homelessness grant is paid to local authorities to tackle homelessness, which includes rough sleeping. It is also paid direct to several voluntary sector agencies in London to help them tackle rough sleeping. Supporting People, introduced in 2003, also funds rough sleeper services. The following table indicates the amount of funding.
In addition to the moneys outlined in the table, an extra £63 million has been made available under the Hotels Capital Improvement Programme in the last three years to improve hostels and day centres used by rough sleepers in London.
Housing
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of the housing stock in England is made up of three bedroom homes. [155696]
Yvette Cooper: The Survey of English Housing reported that 45 per cent. of households in England lived in three-bedroom dwellings in the financial year 2005-06.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of her Department's target of building 240,000 new dwellings a year in England she expects to be built by (a) local authorities as council housing stock, (b) housing associations for social tenure and (c) the private sector for private sale. [155858]
Yvette Cooper: The Government are committed to tackling the problems of housing affordability and have announced plans to raise the annual housing supply target for 2016 from 200,000 to 240,000 additional homes a year.
The recent Housing Green Paper “Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable” sets out further details of our proposals, including Government's plans for the level of affordable housing to be delivered in the years covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review, supported by investment of at least £8 billion. We are increasing outputs of new affordable housing to at least 70,000 by 2010-11 of which 45,000 will be for new social rented homes—50 per cent. more than this year, 2007-08.
The detail of where additional housing of various types will be located is a matter for regional and local planning processes and functions.
Housing: Disabled
Jon Cruddas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many local authorities with housing responsibilities in England have an adapted homes register; [155970]
(2) what assessment she has made of the merits of requiring all local authorities with housing responsibilities to maintain an adapted homes register; [155971]
(3) what assessment she has made of the merits of the creation of a nationwide adapted homes register. [155972]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department does not collect information about social landlords who hold adapted homes registers (otherwise known as accessible housing registers).
The Government want to see social landlords make the best use of housing stock, including accommodation which is accessible or has been adapted. We recognise that accessible housing registers can be useful and the current statutory guidance to local authorities on the allocation of accommodation encourages their use.
The Department’s Disability Equality Scheme published in December 2006 includes a commitment to establish whether and what the role is for accessible housing registers (AHRs) within the context of our choice-based lettings policy(1) and the development of the National Register of Social Housing (NROSH).
NROSH will be a central record of each individual unit of social housing (local authority and housing association stock). This includes property referencing, size type and age of dwelling, category of provision, decent homes standard, accessibility, tenure, rent, service charges and vacancy status. The Data Standards document describing these fields is on the Communities and Local Government website at:
Data collection is not yet complete.
In addition, the Department is providing support (£760,000 over two years 2006--08) to develop a pan-London choice-based lettings scheme (‘Capital Moves’) including the development of a London-wide accessible housing register.
(1) CBL schemes are about advertising available social housing for which applicants can bid. We have set a target for all local authorities to have implemented CBL by 2010.
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