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6 Oct 2008 : Column 337W—continued
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many properties in Slough have been improved under the Decent Homes programme in each year of the programme; and how many require improvement. [222265]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department is unable to provide figures for all tenures relating to the homes improved and homes requiring improvement under the Decent Homes programme in Slough as these are not collected at a local level.
For local authority properties improved the table below sets out the number of local authority properties in Slough that have received capital investment since 2001-02. This will include homes where work has been carried out that is not included in the Decent Homes programme.
| Programme of work on HRA stock (capital type installation, replacement or major repairs) | |
| Slough (£000) | |
| (1 )Figures are as recorded by local authorities. The figure reported by Slough in 2001 is not included as it is not consistent with the data elsewhere in the 2001 return and in subsequent years. Source: Local authority figures from the Business Plan Statistical Appendix (BPSA) which includes retention authorities and arms length management organisations (ALMO's). | |
Through the annual Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix return, Communities and Local Government collected information on private sector dwellings for vulnerable people that received assistance to become decent for the first time in 2006-07. The figure for Slough in that year was 765.
For homes that need improvement under the Decent Homes programme the latest figures state that the number of properties requiring improvement across the social sector in Slough as at 1 April 2007 was 4,154 (3,935 owned by the local authority and 219 owned by Registered Social Landlords).
Housing: Standards
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes in (a) Slough, (b) the South East and (c) England have been improved to the Decent Homes standard in each year since 2001. [221160]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information specific to the number of homes which have been improved to the Decent Homes Standard is not collected by the Department. The main indicator used to monitor progress towards the Decent Homes target in 2010 is the reduction in non-decent homes. The Department collects statistics on non-decent social sector local authority (LA) homes through the Business Plan Statistical Appendix (BPSA) annual return.
These data are published by Communities and Local Government and can be obtained from the Department’s website:
For national information and monitoring of progress the key source is the English House Condition Survey (EHCS)—a dwelling-based survey which provides annual updates on the number of non-decent homes in England overall. The survey includes figures on all tenures. The latest published figures available are from 2006 and can be accessed here:
Local and regional figures from the BPSA, alongside national social sector figures from the EHCS, are provided in table 1 as follows:
| Table 1: Number of local authority owned non-decent dwellings by year | |||||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Notes: 1. Local authority and regional net figures include non decent dwelling losses from acquisitions, right to buy, partial transfers and demolitions. 2. Regional figures for 2001 and 2002 not available due to missing values in the data. 3. There are no adjustments for missing values. There were two authorities that did not return a figure in 2003 and there was one missing return in both 2006 and 2007. Sources: 1. Local authority and aggregated regional figures from the Business Plan Statistical Appendix (BPSA) which includes retention authorities and arm’s length management organisations (ALMOs). 2. National figures from the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) are rounded to the nearest thousand. Latest figures are for 2006. The survey was not conducted in 2002. | |||||||
Similarly, information specific to the number of registered social landlord (RSL) homes which have been improved to the Decent Homes Standard is not collected by the Housing Corporation.
Equivalent local and regional figures for non-decent social housing owned by RSLs are displayed in table 2
as follows. These figures are published and available on the Housing Corporation’s website:
As in table 1, national figures are provided from the EHCS.
| Table 2 : Number of registered social landlord owned non-decent dwellings by year | |||||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Notes: 1. Local authority and regional net RSL figures take in to account non-decent stock losses through acquisitions, sales, disposals and demolitions. 2. The stock for which the number of Decent Homes failures is reported is general needs, supported housing, and housing for older people stock owned by the RSL. 3. Local authority-level RSL and regional RSL net figures take into account acquisitions, sales, disposals and demolitions. Sources: 1. RSL figures by local authority and aggregated RSL regional figures from the Housing Corporation’s Regulatory Statistical Return (RSR) as at 31 March each year. Information on Decent Homes Standard failures has only been collected at a local authority level since 2005. 2. National figures from the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) are rounded to the nearest thousand. Latest figures are for 2006. The survey was not conducted in 2002. | |||||||
The national English House Condition Survey is the only data source available to the Department that provides estimates of non-decency across all tenures. These figures are shown in table 3 as follows:
| Table 3 : Number of non-decent dwellings across all tenures by year | |||||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Source: National figures from the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) are rounded to the nearest thousand. Latest figures are for 2006. The survey was not conducted in 2002. | |||||||
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 of 18 March 2008, Official Report, column 971W, on housing: standards, if she will place in the Library copies of each revised business plan for each pathfinder area. [222816]
Mr. Iain Wright: I refer the hon. Member to my answer given to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) on 17 July 2008, Official Report, column 584W. Copies of the business plans and funding agreements are being deposited in the Library of the House.
Housing: West Midlands
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps the Government has taken to increase the provision of affordable housing in the West Midlands. [222366]
Mr. Iain Wright: The publication of the Government’s “Sustainable Communities: building for the future” in 2003 set out a programme of actions, one of which was the establishment of Regional Housing Boards (RHBs) in each of the regions.
RHBs were given the role of developing Regional Housing Strategies; firstly to identify regional strategic housing priorities, and secondly to develop proposals to Ministers for the allocation of the Government’s housing capital funding from the Regional Housing Pot.
The West Midlands RHB developed its first Strategy in 2005, and this identified the need for affordable housing as a key regional priority, particularly in the south and west of the region.
Based on the priorities identified in the West Midlands Regional Housing Strategy the RHB developed its recommendations for Ministers to determine regional funding allocations for the periods 2004-06 and 2006-08. In those four years (2004-08) just over half of the Regional Housing Pot (£377 million ) was allocated to help deliver 8,500 new affordable homes, a number of these within the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder areas of Urban Living (parts of Birmingham and Sandwell) and Renew North Staffordshire.
In October 2007 the Government announced its overall funding for housing capital allocations for 2008-11. The west midlands was allocated £206 million for 2008-09 (18 per cent., more than 2007-08); £228 million for 2009-10 (11 per cent., higher than 2008-09) and £245 million for 2010-11 (7 per cent., higher than 2009-10), making a three year total of £679 million.
The RHB further proposed to increase the proportion of the allocation from the 2008-11 Regional Housing Pot for delivery of affordable housing, recommending that over two-thirds (£467 million) should be allocated to the region’s National Affordable Housing Programme in order to support delivery of an additional 10,800 affordable homes.
Alongside this, during the early part of 2008, the Government office west midlands negotiated Local Area Agreements (LAA) with the 14 “upper tier” west midlands local authorities. A key target area was “number of affordable homes” and 12 of the 14 authorities identified this as a key priority for their areas. The Government office west midlands negotiated targets with those local authorities to deliver overall 10,880 affordable homes across the west midlands during the period 2008-11.
On 2 September, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a package of measures to meet current challenges in the housing market. This announcement included a measure to bring forward £400 million expenditure (from 2010-11 to 2008-10) to enable social housing providers to deliver 5,500 more homes nationally over the coming 18 months.
Infrastructure Planning Commission
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the latest timetable is for the commencement and conclusion of the review of the Infrastructure Planning Commission's role in relation to the referral of decisions to the Secretary of State. [222484]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening) on 13 May 2008, Official Report, column 1444W. We expect the Infrastructure Planning Commission to begin determining applications in 2010. The review will take place two years after the Infrastructure Planning Commission has accepted its first application for consideration. It will be concluded as soon as reasonably practicable.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the operational start date for the Infrastructure Planning Commission is. [222676]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening) on 13 May 2008, Official Report, column 1444W.
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