| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
25 Mar 2009 : Column 471W—continued
Eco-towns: Public Consultation
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many responses to the current consultation on eco-towns have been received; and what proportion are in favour of the schemes. [265075]
Margaret Beckett: We will issue our response to the consultation in due course following the close of the consultation, and this will include a summary of the numbers of responses and comments received.
Eco-towns: St Austell
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much public funding she expects to be provided for the St. Austell eco-town development; and which organisations she expects to support the scheme. [265284]
Margaret Beckett: The eco-towns consultation is still under way and no decisions have yet been taken on the final list of locations with potential to be an eco-town, so I am unable to comment on funding and support for St. Austell or any of the shortlisted proposals.
Eco-towns: Whitehill-Bordon
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the cost of acquiring the land at Whitehill Bordon owned by the Ministry of Defence. [265275]
Margaret Beckett: We are still consulting on the eco-towns programme and at this stage of the process we have not undertaken a detailed assessment of the costs of acquiring land for the Whitehill-Bordon proposal.
Empty Property
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many empty homes have been brought back into use since the introduction of empty dwellings management orders. [267143]
Mr. Iain Wright: We do not hold this information centrally. Empty dwelling management orders (EDMOs) are part of a wider range of powers available to local authorities to tackle empty homes in their area. We want to encourage voluntary reoccupation of empty homes but this can only work where there is realistic compulsion to back them up. EDMOs provide this compulsion and should therefore be a key component of a comprehensive empty property strategy. We are confident that the legislation is beginning to work well and local authorities claim that in many cases the threat of an EDMO has been sufficient to make owners take action to bring long-term empty homes back into use.
We are keen for local authorities to make use of EDMOs, where appropriate, and are supporting the independent Empty Homes Agency's new guidance on EDMOs, which was launched on 10 March. The guidance is internet based and interactive and will take local authorities through the EDMO process step by step. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing provided a foreword for the guidance.
We are also hosting a seminar at which I will address local authorities encouraging them to take action and to share best practice on tackling empty homes, including the use of EDMOs.
Home Ownership Incentive Schemes
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how much funding to support schemes and initiatives related to housing her Department has brought forward from (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11; and if she will make a statement; [265268]
(2) what capital funding her Department has brought forward from its (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11 budgets for use in (i) 2008-09 and (ii) 2009-10; and to what ends this funding has been allocated. [266188]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government has brought forward £25 million of capital expenditure from 2009-10 and £1,475 million from 2010-11 as a result of initiatives announced in the September Housing Package and pre-Budget report.
£350 million has been brought forward to 2008-09, £1,000 million to 2009-10 and £55 million has been reallocated within 2010-11. This funding has been allocated to housing and regeneration programmes, including affordable housing, Decent Homes and the Community Infrastructure Fund. In addition £95 million has been made available for 2009-10 and 2010-11 to support reforms to Support for Mortgage Interest which is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions.
The pre-Budget report also offered flexibility to the regional development agencies to bring forward up to £100 million of capital expenditure from 2010-11 to 2009-10. In addition, Communities and Local Government has invited local authorities to bring forward up to £175 million from 2010-11 to 2009-10 to accelerate major repairs to council housing stock.
HomeBuy Scheme
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average price of a property purchased through the MyChoiceHomeBuy scheme has been since the initiative began. [265006]
Margaret Beckett: The average price of property purchased through MyChoiceHomeBuy is £169,000.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many unique visitors were received by the HomeBuy website in each month since its launch. [265007]
Margaret Beckett: There is no single HomeBuy website, as HomeBuy agents are responsible for marketing their schemes, and consequently run their own individual websites. Links to all HomeBuy agents can be found on:
The general public can access details of the scheme centrally from:
and further information on HomeBuy is also provided at:
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what she expects the average monthly interest charged by HomeBuy Direct (a) funders and (b) providers to be; and if she will make a statement. [265010]
Margaret Beckett: Each HomeBuy Direct purchaser will receive two equity loans—one provided by the Homes and Communities Agency and one by the relevant developer. These loans will always be of equal value, and their combined value will be between 15 per cent. and 30 per cent. of the property price. No fee will be charged on either equity loan for the first five years after purchase. From year six, an annual fee (levied monthly) of 1.75 per cent. will apply to each loan. The annual interest rate for the equity loans will rise annually by the retail price index (RPI) plus 1 per cent.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average monthly interest charged by MyChoiceHomeBuy (a) funders and (b) providers has been since the scheme began. [265011]
Margaret Beckett: This information is not held centrally. Information on the annual fee payable on the MyChoiceHomeBuy equity loan is available at:
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many MyChoiceHomeBuy providers there are in each region. [265012]
Margaret Beckett: There are eight MyChoice HomeBuy providers across the country, each of whom work in specific zones. The breakdown between the regions is as follows:
| Region | Number of MyChoice providers | Providers |
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much (a) the Government and (b) its partners have provided for the HomeBuy Direct scheme; and how much will be provided in each of the next three years. [265017]
Margaret Beckett: The Government are making £400 million available in the remainder of 2008-09 and 2009-10 to help up to 18,000 first time buyers into home ownership through the HomeBuy Direct scheme. The actual amount of expenditure incurred by Government will depend on take-up, as well as on the actual value of the equity loans that are provided to purchasers. The actual amount that is spent by Government will be matched by the participating developers (in the form of funding for equity loans).
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people have applied for assistance via the My ChoiceHomeBuy scheme; how many applications have been granted; and what the average level of support has been. [265068]
Margaret Beckett: 45,452 applications were made for the MyChoice HomeBuy scheme to the end of February 2009, of which 23,632 were approved by the provider for the purchaser to seek a property. Of the 3,300 applicants that purchased a property up to the end of February 2009 the average level of Government funding was £31,738.
Housing Defects Scheme
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what payments were made to local authorities under the Housing Defects Scheme in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [265083]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following payments have been made to local authorities under the Housing Defects Scheme during the past five years:
| £ | |
Housing: Construction
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) social and (b) private enterprise homes were built in each region in each of the last 20 quarters. [265088]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table shows the number of new build affordable homes for social rent in England, by region. These figures are not available quarterly.
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |