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28 Oct 2008 : Column 955W—continued
Housing
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what issues the forthcoming Housing Green Paper will address; and what the timetable is for its publication. [230308]
Margaret Beckett: The Government announced in ‘Preparing Britain for the future: the Government's draft legislative programme 2008-09' (available from The Stationery Office)
and its intention to publish a Housing Reform Green Paper towards the end of 2008. It said that the Green Paper would set out
“proposals to provide housing services and options which help and encourage people towards greater economic independence and social mobility—matching responsibility with opportunity so that they can realise their potential and best meet their own housing aspirations in the future—and to deliver greater fairness and make best use of resources”.
I am currently considering the content and timing of the Green Paper.
Housing and Communities Agency: Public Appointments
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government who has been appointed to the Board of the Housing and Communities Agency; what criteria were used in making the appointments; and what annual remuneration each board member will receive. [229962]
Mr. Iain Wright: The board members appointed to the board, in addition to Robert Napier as chair were: Kate Barker, Professor Peter Roberts, Bob Lane, Candy Atherton, Margaret Fay, Shaukat Moledina, Don Wood, Ian Robertson and Dru Vesty.
Recruitment was carried out in two phases. To preserve continuity from the HCA's predecessor bodies, some of the membership of the board of the HCA was drawn from the existing English Partnership and Housing Corporation Boards via a preference exercise and interview process. New members were recruited via an open competition and were required to meet advertised criteria. These included experience of the commercial realities of delivering large scale physical development, experience of leading organisations at board level, combined with an understanding of the public sector, public finance and accountability. The appointments were made in accordance with the Code of Practice of the Office of the Commissioners for Public Appointments.
The remuneration of all board members is £13,000 per annum for a commitment of two days per month.
Housing: Carbon Emissions
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2008, Official Report, column 1479W, on stamp duty land tax, who is responsible for determining whether an energy performance certificate contains the information sufficient to demonstrate that the zero carbon homes standard has been met and that a further inspection is not necessary for certification. [230151]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
Accredited assessors are responsible for deciding whether the information contained in an energy performance certificate provides sufficient evidence, that the zero carbon homes standard has been met.
Housing: Construction
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent assessment she has made of the implications of the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and secondary legislation made under it on building standards and regulations for new domestic dwellings. [225442]
Mr. Iain Wright: Implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act does not by necessity require amendment of the Building Regulations. However, in line with the requirements of the Disability Equality Duty, Communities and Local Government will Equality Impact Assess existing policies, and any proposed changes, on Building Regulations for new domestic dwellings as they come forward for review. Equality Impact Assessments are made publicly available on the Departmental web site.
Housing: Low Incomes
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) budgeted expenditure and (b) outturn expenditure was for each HomeBuy scheme in each year since the schemes were introduced. [229280]
Mr. Iain Wright:
The following table shows outturn expenditure through the Housing Corporation's Affordable Housing programme for each homebuy scheme for each
year since the schemes were introduced. As new build homebuy is comparable to the Shared Ownership programme we have also provided these figures back to 1997-98. New build homebuy and social homebuy were only introduced from 2006-07.
| £ million | ||||
| Shared ownership | Homebuy new build | Open market homebuy | Social homebuy | |
| Source: Housing Corporation | ||||
We do not set budgets for individual low cost home ownership products which fall within the Housing Corporation's Affordable Housing programme.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent steps the Government has taken to increase the stock of affordable housing. [230818]
Mr. Iain Wright: We remain committed to the delivery of affordable housing. We are investing over £8 billion in affordable housing over the three years, 2008-11. This investment is being made initially through the Housing Corporation and then the new Homes and Communities Agency.
Our aspiration is to reach 70,000 new affordable homes a year by 2010-11.
On 2 September we announced a £1 billion housing market package to increase confidence, stability and fairness in the housing market, building on the previous announcements in May and July. These measures include bringing forward £400 million in order to deliver up to 5,500 new social homes over the next 18 months on top of current assumptions and offering up to 10,000 first-time buyers currently frozen out of the mortgage market the chance to get onto the property ladder through a new shared equity scheme, Homebuy Direct which is being offered in partnership with house builders.
As part of this package we will be supporting up to 6,000 of the most vulnerable homeowners facing repossession to remain in their home through a mortgage rescue scheme of £200 million.
Housing: Overcrowding
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the Government plans to bring forward new standards for statutory housing over-crowding; and if she will make a statement. [231057]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government are committed to addressing overcrowding and to updating the statutory standards. We have invested over £4 million in 38 local authorities this year to enable them to develop strategies and action plans to tackle overcrowding. Part of this funding has been used to collect more robust data on overcrowding which will enable us to assess the cost and impact of updating the statutory standards. We expect to have further evidence from the pathfinders next spring.
Housing: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent from the public purse per head on housing in (a) rural and (b) urban areas in 2007-08. [227989]
Mr. Iain Wright: This information is not held centrally.
Housing: Planning
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been allocated to (a) the Housing and Planning Delivery Group and (b) Growth Point funding for each of the next three years. [230428]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government are not aware of a Housing and Planning Delivery Group. However the current funding allocations for the next three years for (a) Housing and Planning Delivery Grant and (b) Growth Point Funding are set out in the following tables:
| Housing and planning delivery grant | |||
| £ million | |||
| Year | Planning | Housing | Total |
| Growth point funding | |||
| £ million | |||
| Year | 1( st) Round | 2( nd) Round | Total |
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the criteria are for the allocation of housing and planning delivery grant. [230451]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Housing and Planning Delivery Grant was established to reward local authorities for improved delivery of housing and other planning outcomes. It consists of a housing and a planning element.
For this year, the housing element is allocated to all local authorities with net additional housing completions above 0.75 per cent. of their existing housing stock. For each net addition above the threshold, the local authority receives one unit of housing grant.
The planning element consists of four components: demonstrating sufficient land for housing in line with planning policy statement 3 through a strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA); delivery of core strategies and development plan documents; joint working on the production of any plan document under the provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004; and publication of a strategic housing market assessment.
Further information is available at:
Housing: Prices
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether she has considered the merits of implementing a scheme to narrow the gap between house prices and wages. [227928]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government do not set house price levels or private sector wages. Our current policies aim to increase the supply of housing and widen affordability. The Housing Green Paper published in July 2007 ‘Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable' (CM 7191), set out our target to raise annual housing supply to 240,000 additional homes a year by 2016 in England.
Housing: Regeneration
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether 2008-09 output targets for the latest round of housing market renewal pathfinders have now been agreed. [230410]
Mr. Iain Wright: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 6 October 2008, Official Report, column 340W, given to the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait).
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