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24 Mar 2009 : Column 218W—continued
Homes and Community Agency
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what interest was earned on deposits held by the Homes and Community Agency and its predecessors in each of the last five years. [265264]
Margaret Beckett: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) was established on 1 December 2008. As the HCA uses the Government Banking Service it means that no interest has been earned on any deposits made since that date.
The predecessor bodies of the HCA were the investment arm of the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships, and the Academy for Sustainable Communities, plus former programmes previously run by my Department. No interest was received on deposits by former CLG programmes, the Academy or the Housing Corporation. The following table shows the interest earned on deposits by English Partnerships over the last five years. This information has been taken from audited accounts.
| Year ending 31 March each year | Total interest earned by English Partnerships (£ million) |
The interest earned on deposits by English Partnerships between 1 April 2008 and 30 November 2008, prior to the creation of the HCA, was £16 million.
Housing: Construction
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the number of new homes which will be (a) started and (b) completed in (i) 2009 and (ii) 2010. [264995]
Mr. Iain Wright: Estimates have not been made by the Government of the number of new homes that will be started or completed in 2009 and 2010.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new homes were (a) started and (b) completed in each of the last 20 quarters. [265002]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table shows the number of new build housing starts and completions in England for each of the last 20 quarters.
Housing: Low Incomes
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Homes and Communities Agency has spent on acquiring unsold stock for affordable housing in each of the last 12 months; and how many properties have been purchased. [265266]
Mr. Iain Wright: The plan to take advantage of market opportunities to bring private sector developer stock into the affordable housing sector by providing at least £200 million of funding through the Homes and Communities Agency’s National Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) for the purchase of unsold homes from house builders was announced in May 2008.
The amount of grant allocated and number of homes to be provided, by month, is as follows:
| Grant (£ million) | Homes | |
Housing: Prices
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the ratio of median house prices to median earnings was in each of the last 20 quarters. [264990]
Mr. Iain Wright: The ratio of median house prices to median earnings in England for the years 1997 to 2008 is presented in the following table.
| Median house prices to median earnings, England | |
| Ratio | |
| Source: Land Registry and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ONS) | |
Housing: Standards
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many social sector homes were considered non-decent in each year since 2001; and what estimate has been made of the number so considered in 2008-09. [264982]
Mr. Iain Wright: The information requested is provided in the following table. It is not possible to make an accurate estimate at the moment for the number of non-decent homes among the whole social stock at end of the current financial year.
| Social sector non-decent dwellings 2001-08 | ||
| As at 1 April each year | Non-decent dwellings (thousand) | Percentage of all social sector dwellings |
| (1) 2001 figures for Registered Social Landlords are not available and are therefore excluded. Sources: Registered social landlord data from the Regulatory Statistical Return Part Q4 (long), Part Q6 (short). Local authority data from the Business Plan Statistical Appendix. | ||
Local Government: Disclosure of Information
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department has issued on whistleblowing policy in relation to individuals working in child protection in local authorities; and if she will make a statement. [247817]
Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.
The statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’, updated in 2006, makes clear in section 2.8 that all organisations that provide services for, or work with, children, must have appropriate whistle-blowing procedures, and a culture that enables issues about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to be addressed.
Ofsted is currently establishing a whistleblower's hotline for social workers and other front-line staff to alert Ofsted to any serious concerns about practice that fails to ensure the safety and welfare of children. It expects this to be operational from April 2009. At present it is possible for staff with concerns to raise these anonymously by contacting Ofsted's National Business Unit, the contacts for which can be found on the Ofsted website.
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