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13 July 2009 : Column 124Wcontinued
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has allocated for its eco-towns programme in each of the next three years. [284935]
John Healey: We expect to make growth area funding available to those taking forward eco-town proposals, and in particular to support early delivery. In addition support will be available from the National Affordable Housing Programme, managed by the Homes and Communities Agency.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will make an assessment of the effects of the introduction of home information packs on the level of (a) demand for the services of domestic energy assessors and (b) competition in the domestic energy assessment market; and if he will make a statement. [285744]
John Healey: Both demand for the services of domestic energy assessors and competition in the domestic energy assessment market are matters for the market to determine. There are therefore no plans to carry out an assessment of the effects of the introduction of home information packs on either.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of the Homes and Communities Agency's capital funding he expects to be allocated to the provision of homes for (a) social rent, (b) shared ownership and shared equity, (c) intermediate rent, (d) intermediate tenure other than intermediate rent and (e) private sale in each region in the next three years. [284699]
John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency will set out their spending plans and allocations in their corporate plan, which will be published shortly.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 18 November 2008, Official Report, column 112, on housing policy, whether his Department is on course to deliver three million new homes by 2020. [284481]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Housing Green Paper, "Homes for the Future: more affordable, more sustainable", published in July 2007, set out the Government's ambition to increase housing supply.
The Department does not produce forecasts of housing supply. However, the Government recognise that the current financial and economic conditions will make the achievement of their housing supply ambition extremely challenging. But despite the difficult economic and financial conditions, long-term pressures on housing supply and affordability remain. The Government therefore remain fully committed to doing all they can to meet the long-term demand and need for housing.
At Budget 2009 the Government announced a further £1 billion housing package which included a £400 million Kickstart housing delivery fund to restart stalled construction activity across the country. This should help developers retain jobs and skills, and boost the supply of homes over the next year.
In order to complement this investment, the Government are putting in place measures to enable a strong and sustainable recovery in house building, including: ensuring availability of sufficient supply of land and an effective and responsive planning system; and delivering effective and coordinated infrastructure provision.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes for (a) social rent, (b) shared ownership and shared equity, (c) intermediate rent and (d) intermediate tenure other than intermediate rent have been (i) started, (ii) completed and (iii) acquired in the last three years; what estimate he has made of the number of homes in each such category to be (A) started, (B) completed and (C) acquired in the next three years; how many homes for private purchase have been (1) started and (2) completed in the last three years; and how many he expects to be (x) started and (y) completed in the next three years. [284698]
Mr. Ian Austin: Figures showing the number of social rent, intermediate rent and low cost home ownership completions in England, broken down by new build completions and acquisitions, were released in live table 1009 on the CLG website in December 2008:
Affordable housing figures are collated from the Homes and Communities Agency investment management system (IMS); and housing strategy statistical appendix (HSSA) returns and P2 house building returns submitted to CLG by local authorities.
Comprehensive figures showing the total number of affordable housing starts are not available.
Communities and Local Government do not set targets for affordable housing. The details of how the national affordable housing programme (NAHP) will be managed, taking account of the housing pledge, part of Building
Britain's Future, announced on 29 June, will be published in the HCA corporate plan shortly.
Figures showing the number of house building starts and completions in England, broken down by tenure, were released in live tables 208 (house building starts) and 209 (house building completions) on the CLG website in May 2009:
Figures are not available showing how many homes for private purchase are expected to be started and completed in the next three years.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been spent under the Kickstart programme to re-start stalled housing projects; and how many houses have been completed under the programme. [284799]
John Healey: Since its announcement in April, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has been conducting a competitive exercise to select projects for the Kickstart Housing Development Programme. I expect to announce the first allocations from the HCA from this programme later this month and to see the first building starts of new homes from the third quarter of 2009.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people had successfully completed a diploma in (a) domestic energy assessment and (b) home inspection in (i) Hemel Hempstead constituency, (ii) Hertfordshire and (iii) England at the latest date for which figures are available. [284815]
John Healey: Data about the number of people who successfully complete diplomas for either domestic energy assessment or home inspection are not collected centrally.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of additional energy-efficient homes the Government expects to be built in the next two years which will be built in eco-towns. [284936]
John Healey: As yet no decisions have been made on those locations with potential to be an eco-town, but our aim is to see the first phase of a number of exemplar projects starting in the next couple of years, which will include providing energy efficient homes.
Ms Buck:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes for shared ownership, shared equity and discounted market sale were sold to households with an annual household income at the time of purchase of (a) £20,000 or less, (b) between £20,001 and £30,000, (c) between £30,001 and £40,000, (d) between £40,001 and £50,000, (e)
between £50,001 and £60,000, (f) between £60,001 and £70,000 and (g) over £70,000 in 2008-09; and what the average amount of subsidy provided to households in each income bracket was in that year. [284701]
John Healey: These data are available from the Continuous Recording (CORE) returns to the Tenant Services Authority from registered social landlords. Data for 2008-09, however, are not yet available.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Prime Minister's statement of 29 June 2009, Official Report, columns 21-24, on Building Britain's Future, whether the £1.5 billion additional expenditure for affordable housing he announced includes the £400 million allocated in the 2009 Budget. [284733]
John Healey: The £1.5 billion for the Housing Pledge set out in Building Britain's Future is additional expenditure. It does not include the £400 million allocated in the 2009 Budget.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether local authorities which have transferred housing stock to a registered social landlord under a large scale voluntary transfer are permitted to build new social housing. [284802]
Mr. Ian Austin: There is nothing to prevent any local housing authority building new social housing.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many new properties were available for sale under the (a) HomeBuy Direct, (b) New Build HomeBuy and (c) Rent to HomeBuy scheme in each of the last 12 months; [285963]
(2) how many properties were available under the (a) HomeBuy Direct, (b) New Build HomeBuy, (c) Rent to HomeBuy and (d) First-time Buyers Initiative in each of the last 12 months. [286015]
John Healey: Data on the number of properties available each month for New Build HomeBuy and Rent to HomeBuy are not held centrally. The following table shows the number of newly completed properties available for New Build HomeBuy and Rent to HomeBuy in each of the last 12 months.
NewBuild Home B uy | Rent to HomeBuy | |
There were 1,670 properties available under the First Time Buyers initiative in July 2008. This has gradually declined and as at the end of June 2009 there were 1,118 properties available.
HomeBuy Direct was introduced in September 2008 and there are currently over 8,000 properties available.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what expenditure his Department has incurred on (a) HomeBuy Direct, (b) OwnHome, (c) OpenMarket HomeBuy, (d) the First-time Buyers Initiative, (e) MyChoice HomeBuy, (f) New Built HomeBuy, (g) Social HomeBuy and (h) Rent to HomeBuy in 2009-10 to date. [286014]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, South (Margaret Beckett) on 21 May 2009, Official Report, column 1546W.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes have been withdrawn from the (a) HomeBuy Direct, (b) New Build HomeBuy, (c) Rent to HomeBuy and (d) First Time Buyers Initiative scheme in each of the last 12 months. [286031]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, South (Margaret Beckett) on 28 April 2009, Official Report, column 1178W.
No homes have been withdrawn from First Time Buyers Initiative schemes in the last 12 months. It is open to housing associations to convert NewBuild HomeBuy units to social, intermediate rent and Rent to HomeBuy to meet local circumstances.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the latest date was on which applications for (a) OwnHome, (b) MyChoice HomeBuy and (c) Open Market HomeBuy were accepted; and if he will make a statement. [286032]
John Healey: The latest dates on which applications were taken for MyChoiceHomeBuy were in mid May and early July for Ownhome.
Open Market HomeBuy is a general term for Ownhome and MyChoiceHomeBuy rather than a separate product.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will permit local authorities to participate in the Housing and Communities Agency's clearing house scheme for the sale of homes to housing associations. [284801]
John Healey: The Home and Communities Agency's (HCA) National Clearing House was set up to streamline initial assessment of national packages of at least 250 units from private sector house builders and operated during 2008-09. For the future, the HCA will continue to fund the purchase of unsold stock from developers where it represents value for money, is of good quality and in the right locations.
Local authorities, who successfully pre-qualify, will be able to bid for grant from the Homes and Communities Agency's Affordable Housing Programme through two bidding rounds announced in May.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what provision each local authority which has lost more than £5 million as a result of the Icelandic banking collapse has made to cover the loss. [286394]
Ms Rosie Winterton: It is for each individual local authority to assess and manage their own financial situation and revise their financial plans and strategies where necessary. We do not hold the information requested.
We produced a regulation, which came into force on 31 March 2009, which allows local authorities to postpone the impact on budget calculations of the impairments required by accounting practice from the financial year 2009-10 to 2010-11. This will give councils time to adjust their medium-term financial plans and be clearer about how much money might be recovered before taking decisions which affect their budgets or council tax.
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