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11 May 2009 : Column 512W—continued
Housing Revenue Accounts
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many applications her Department has received from local authorities for permission to transfer housing revenue account stock into the general fund under section 19(2) of the Housing Act 1985 in each of the last five years. [274826]
Mr. Iain Wright: The information is as follows:
| Number | |
Housing: Construction
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the number of self-build properties constructed in each of the last five years. [274832]
Mr. Iain Wright: This information is not held centrally.
Housing: Floods
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of her Department’s expenditure in the last 12 months on rehousing people who lost their homes as a result of flooding. [273091]
John Healey: The Department has provided, since 1 May 2008, approximately £32.6 million to local authorities affected by the summer 2007 floods and approximately £1.3 million to local authorities affected by subsequent flooding, to support them in helping householders, businesses and communities get back to normal.
This funding is part of approximately of £69.2 million provided by the Department and £136 million by central Government as a whole to support the recovery effort from the summer 2007 floods.
Housing: Merseyside
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many of the new houses completed in (a) Merseyside and (b) Crosby constituency between 2003 and 2009 were vacant at the latest date for which figures are available. [273610]
Mr. Iain Wright: The information requested is not held centrally.
The council tax base and council taxbase supplementary (CTB1 and CTB1S) return, reported by local authorities to CLG, includes the total number of long-term and short-term vacancies in a local authority area.
The table gives the total number of vacant dwellings in Merseyside and its local authorities at 6 October
2008, the latest date for which figures are available. The number of vacant dwellings is not available at constituency level.
| County/local authority | Number of long-term empty dwellings (empty for more than six months) | Total number of empty dwellings |
| Source: Council Taxbase and Council Taxbase Supplementary (CTB1 and CTB1S) returns from local authorities. | ||
Those dwellings vacant for less than six months are more likely to be empty for a short period following a sale before the new owner occupies it, where the property needs work to be carried out before it can be occupied, or where the property is in probate and are seen as ‘transactional’ vacant dwellings and are thus a characteristic of the housing market.
It is therefore sometimes more appropriate to look at long-term vacancies rather than the total number of vacant dwellings.
Housing: Planning Permission
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department has provided to planning authorities on the definition of the term eaves used in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted) Development Order 1995, as amended. [273547]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government have not provided a definition of eaves in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted) Development Order, 1995, nor have they issued guidance on a definition to local planning authorities. Interpretation of the order is a matter for local authorities and ultimately a matter for the courts.
Housing: Sales
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of first-time buyers purchased a home at a price under £250,000 in the last year for which figures are available. [273761]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department holds data on completed mortgages used for house purchase via the Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS) which are supplied by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The RMS covers about 60 per cent. of the UK mortgage market and includes details on whether the buyer was a first-time buyer and the purchase price of the property.
Using the RMS we estimate that 89 per cent. of first- time buyers buying with a mortgage purchased their property for under £250,000 in the UK in 2008. Using Council of Mortgage Lenders data on total numbers of first-time buyers buying with a mortgage in the UK for 2008 we estimate that this amounts to around 172,800 first-time buyers.
Housing: Standards
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much of the Decent Homes scheme has been funded through the Private Finance Initiative. [273732]
Mr. Iain Wright: £4.6 billion in PFI credits has been allocated to the Housing PFI Programme. Around £2.2 billion of this total figure has been allocated to schemes that will help local authorities meet the Decent Homes standard. Of this, £1.1 billion accounts for schemes which are now in construction and/or operational.
Housing: Surveys
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what changes have been made in the methodology used to compile the English House Condition Survey in each year since 1997. [273799]
Mr. Iain Wright: The English House Condition Survey (EHCS) was run every five years from 1971 until 2001 but moved to a continuous survey from 2002. From 2008 the survey merged with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) which is also run on a continuous basis.
The basic EHCS survey methodology remained unchanged from 1997. A smaller 8,000 annual clustered sample was introduced in 2002 (compared to a 17,000 un-clustered sample used for the five yearly survey) to reduce fieldwork costs. Minor changes have been made each year to the survey content and reporting to reflect the changing information needs of government. From 2006 assessments were collected under the Housing Health and Safety Rating system (which replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory tool for enforcing minimum standards).
Under the EHS interviews are now conducted with 17,000 households a year. A surveyor subsequently conducts an inspection of 8,000 of these homes using a new automated method of data collection to further reduce costs and improve data quality.
The EHCS/EHS continue to provide Government with an essential source of information on the changing condition and energy performance of the housing stock. Further information about the EHCS, including annual methodological reports, can be found at:
Local Government Services: Fees and Charges
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what powers local authorities have to charge for building control services in relation to small household extensions. [273689]
Mr. Iain Wright: Local authorities are authorised by ‘The Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 1998’ to fix their own charges in a scheme for carrying out their main building control functions with the aim of fully recovering their costs. The charges for building work related to small household extensions should be fixed with reference to the floor area of the proposed extension.
The Department is currently carrying out a consultation exercise seeking views on a number of proposed changes to the charging regime. The consultation paper can be found on our website at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningand building/lachargingregimeconsult
National Brownfield Forum
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of each meeting of the National Brownfield Forum; and what the membership of the forum is. [273220]
Mr. Iain Wright: The role of the forum was set out in the Government's Response to (then) English Partnerships' Recommendations on the National Brownfield Strategy, and referred to the aim of “promoting a more cohesive and inclusive approach to policy development”.
The National Brownfield Forum held its first meeting in February 2009, and further meetings will be held quarterly. The meetings are held in confidence, and relate to the formulation and development of Government policy.
Communities and Local Government will be publishing summaries of the forum meetings on its website as a matter of course in the near future.
Membership of the forum is composed, currently, of representatives of the following organisations:
AGS—Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists
CIEH—Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
CLAIRE—Contaminated Land Applications in Real Environments
DCLG—Department for Communities and Local Government
DEFRA—Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
EA—Environment Agency
EIC—Environmental Industries Commission
EPUK—Environmental Protection UK
FSA—Food Standards Agency
HBF—House Builders Federation
HCA—Homes and Communities Agency
HPA—Health Protection Agency
LACORS—Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services
LRT—Land Restoration Trust
SAGTA—Soil and Groundwater Technology Association
SILC—Specialist in Land Condition.
Planning: Public Consultation
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many consultations on planning policy her Department has issued since May 2005. [273759]
Mr. Iain Wright: Since 1 May 2005 we have launched 11 consultations on planning policy. This excludes consultation on specific procedural and legislative changes and proposed advice documents.
Property Development
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance her Department has provided to local authorities on whether under the terms of the General Permitted Development Order the measurement of the extended part of the dwelling house beyond the original dwelling house is taken from wall to wall or roof to roof. [274166]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government have not specified in the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted) Development Order, 1995, as amended, whether the measurement of the extended part of the dwelling house beyond the original dwelling house should be taken from wall-to-wall or roof-to-roof. Nor have they issued guidance on this issue to local planning authorities. Interpretation of the order is a matter for local authorities and ultimately for the courts.
Property Development: Floods
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 21 April 2009, Official Report, column 147, if she will place in the Library a copy of the recent reassessment of protection against flood risk. [273256]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Environment Agency's Thames Estuary 2100 Consultation document sets out a tidal flood management plan for the London and the Thames estuary through to the end of the century. The consultation closes at the end of June and the document is available on the Environment Agency website:
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much gross revenue the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre raised from bookings made by Government departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies in 2008. [272438]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre generated £2,927,941 gross revenue from bookings made by Government departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies in 2008.
Recreation Spaces
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2009, Official Report, column 1279W, on departmental procurement, whether the green spaces database holds information on gardens. [273594]
Mr. Iain Wright: The green spaces database holds information on English gardens for 2005.
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