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21 July 2009 : Column 1657W—continued

Housing Associations

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what powers local authorities have to set up housing associations. [288827]

John Healey: There is no express provision in statute allowing local authorities to set up housing associations, although there is a general power available to local authorities to do anything which would promote or improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of an area.

The Housing Act 1985 allows a local authority to facilitate the creation of a housing association through
21 July 2009 : Column 1658W
the transfer of its housing to another person (subject to consultation, a ballot of tenants and the consent of the Secretary of State).

Housing Investment Trusts

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many housing investment trusts have been established since 1996. [287524]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I have been asked to reply.

Housing Investment Trusts, known as HITs, were introduced in the 1996 Finance Act. No HITs were ever created. Legislation creating the HIT regime was repealed by Finance Act 2006 following two consultations, during which there was no opposition to repeal.

Housing Market

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many residential properties were sold in England in 2008-09; and what estimate his Department has made of the number of such properties expected to be sold in 2009-10. [287507]

John Healey: Data published by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs report the number of residential property transaction completions with a value of £40,000 or above in England in 2008-09 as 664,000. We have not made any estimates for transactions in England for 2009-10.

Housing: Construction

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new homes were built in (a) Hemel Hempstead, (b) Dacorum and (c) Hertfordshire in each of the last eight quarters. [284317]

John Healey: Information on house building completions is not available below the spatial level of local authority.

The following table shows the number of new homes built in each local authority in Hertfordshire county in each of the last eight quarters.

2007 2008 2009
Local authority April to June July to September October to December January to March April to June July to September October to December January to March

Hert fordshire

Broxbourne

36

33

71

94

44

46

35

53

Dacorum

83

85

113

35

97

148

83

28

East Hertfordshire

99

-

46

76

36

97

51

84

Hertsmere

42

69

167

38

96

36

55

9

North Hertfordshire

157

34

131

25

5

7

35

20

St. Albans

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Stevenage

62

63

231

16

11

90

80

42

Three Rivers

106

41

45

35

38

79

104

59

Watford

5

3

96

94

174

117

92

27

Welwyn Hatfield

185

198

126

178

76

23

34

15

Source:
New build completions from P2 quarterly returns submitted by local authorities and the National House-Building Council to CLG.

21 July 2009 : Column 1659W

Data on numbers of new build housing starts and completions by district are published routinely on the CLG website. The latest data can be found at:

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many houses in each of the millennium villages have been built; and in what locations. [288101]

John Healey: Since the programme began in 1997, the number of houses in each millennium village and the locations in which they have been built are:

Millennium community Location Completed homes

Greenwich Millennium Village

Greenwich, London

1,099

New Islington

Manchester

179

Allerton Bywater

Leeds

172

Kings Lynn

Kings Lynn, Norfolk

109

Telford

Telford

53

Hastings

Hastings

0

Oakgrove

Milton Keynes

18

Total

1,630


Housing: Elderly

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government who the members are of the Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation established by the Homes and Communities Agency; and what the remit of the panel is. [288290]

John Healey: The housing our ageing population panel for innovation (HAPPI) will gather good practice from across Europe and put together new and creative proposals to help inform the HCA on scope for innovative housing for older people.

The membership of this panel is:

Housing: Expenditure

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 16 June 2009, Official Report, column 203W,
21 July 2009 : Column 1660W
on housing: expenditure, how much his Department plans to spend on capital expenditure on housing in each of the next two years. [281524]

John Healey [holding answer 22 June 2009]: Capital expenditure in this instance is taken to cover grants to the private sector, contributions to registered social landlords, and expenditure on council-owned housing stock.

The total planned investment for next year (2010-11) is £4,492 million. This includes additional funding of £510 million to be invested in new affordable housing as announced in 'Building Britain's Future'. This will be made available from anticipated underspends in other departments. However this figure excludes the major repairs allowance (MRA) element of housing revenue account subsidy, because the figure will not be known until 2010. For information, MRA for the current financial year is £1,277 million.

Budgets for 2011-12 will be subject to the next spending review.

Housing: Low Incomes

Jon Cruddas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many houses provided under the National Affordable Housing Programme 2008-11 under projects with starts in London after March 2009 (a) there will be in each borough, (b) will be new build, (c) will be converted from privately-developed units and (d) will have (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three and (iv) four or more bedrooms. [288075]

John Healey: The number of new build homes forecast to start on site through the National Affordable Housing Programme since March 2009 are set out in the table. These figures show the current position and more starts on site will be added as the Homes and Communities Agency allocates more funding to successful bids for grant.


21 July 2009 : Column 1661W
National Affordable Housing Programme-forecast starts on site
Number of bedrooms

1 2 3 4 Total

Barking and Dagenham

115

85

25

13

238

Barnet

77

146

104

11

338

Bexley

67

144

56

14

281

Brent

196

223

98

36

553

Bromley

74

79

34

8

195

Camden

43

47

34

1

125

Croydon

78

211

86

46

421

Ealing

107

94

44

3

248

Enfield

176

186

56

9

427

Greenwich

315

490

223

110

1,138

Hackney

201

261

164

87

713

Hammersmith and Fulham

20

70

73

8

171

Haringey

62

125

35

23

245

Harrow

102

130

69

67

368

Havering

126

173

122

31

452

Hillingdon

46

118

55

27

246

Hounslow

15

32

15

6

68

Islington

226

230

57

11

524

Kingston upon Thames

6

8

5

9

28

Lambeth

97

123

48

10

278

Lewisham

370

433

100

33

936

Merton

81

142

37

54

314

Newham

359

942

354

164

1,819

Redbridge

96

77

47

11

231

Richmond upon Thames

4

26

18

0

48

Southwark

271

380

205

27

883

Sutton

33

124

104

16

277

Tower Hamlets

707

788

352

118

1,965

Waltham Forest

89

169

76

30

364

Wandsworth

52

42

8

0

102

Westminster

69

108

72

5

254

Grand total

4,280

6,206

2,776

988

14,250

Source:
Homes and Communities Agency

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