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6 Jan 2010 : Column 368W—continued
Homelessness: Nottingham
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) rough sleepers and (b) homeless people there were in Nottingham North constituency in (a) 1997 and (b) the latest period for which figures are available. [308993]
Mr. Ian Austin: Information on rough sleeping has been collected since 1998 and a street count conducted in Nottingham in 1998 found 14 rough sleepers. The last street count took place in 2008 and found three rough sleepers.
Information about English local housing authorities' actions under the homelessness legislation (part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected at local authority level, and published by the Department in the quarterly Statistical Release on Statutory Homelessness, available both in the Library and via the CLG website at:
Data collected include the number of households accepted by local housing authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore owed a main homelessness duty (to secure that suitable accommodation is available). If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority must secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available, and this information is also collected.
Data are not collected at constituency level. Nottingham North constituency falls within the north-western part of the City of Nottingham unitary authority. The numbers
of households accepted as statutory homeless in the City of Nottingham in 1997-98 and 2008-09 are 908 and 633 respectively. The number of households accommodated by the City of Nottingham in temporary accommodation as at 31 December 1997 is 148 and as at 30 September 2009 is 74.
Homes and Communities Agency: Equal Opportunities
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what proportion of staff of the (a) Homes and Communities Agency and (b) Tenant Services Authority are (i) women and (ii) from black and minority ethnic groups; [308771]
(2) what guidance his Department has provided to the (a) Homes and Communities Agency and (b) Tenant Services Authority on diversity. [308772]
John Healey: With respect of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), 56 per cent. of staff are female and 11 per cent. are from black and minority ethnic groups, and for the Tenants Services Authority (TSA), 59 per cent. of staff are female and 19 per cent. are from black and minority ethnic groups.
The HCA has developed its own Single Equality scheme 'Diverse intentions' published in November 2009
This covers all of HCA's functions as a housing and regeneration delivery agency, and as an employer.
In addition, the TSA is about to publish it's Single Equalities scheme setting how it will fulfil its obligations and wider role on equality issues.
Homes and Communities Agency: Pay
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether any staff of the (a) Homes and Communities Agency and (b) Tenant Services Authority earn salaries of over £194,250. [308770]
John Healey: Details of remuneration for senior staff for both the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenants Services Authority are shown in each organisation's financial statements for 2008-09, copies of which were laid in the House.
Homes and Communities Agency: Public Relations
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs Spelman) of 19 May 2009, Official Report, column 1345W, on the Homes and Communities Agency: public relations, when a copy of the briefs and contract will be placed in the Library. [308814]
John Healey: I have placed a copy of the contract briefs in the Library of the House. The actual contracts are commercially sensitive and cannot be made available.
Housing
Ms Buck:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of households in (a) owner-occupier, (b) private rented and (c) social rented accommodation was estimated to be overcrowded
in (i) England and (ii) each English region in (A) 1997 and (B) 2008. [304515]
Mr. Ian Austin: The following table provides estimates of the percentage of households that were overcrowded by tenure for each English region and for England for 1996-97 (three-year average 1994-95 to 1996-97). Estimates for 2007-08 (three-year average 2005-06 to 2007-08) are available in table 1.15 of "Housing in England 2007-08", which is available on the Department's website at:
A three-year average is used due to small sample sizes. Estimates are based on data from the Survey of English Housing and overcrowding is defined according to the bedroom standard.
| Rate of overcrowding by tenure and region( 1) , 1994-95 to 1996-97 | ||||
| Percentage of households overcrowded | ||||
| Average 1994-95 to 1996-97 | ||||
| Owner occupiers | Social renters | Private renters | All tenures | |
| (1) Due to small sample sizes a three-year average is used. Source: Survey of English Housing. | ||||
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the terms are of the agreement between the Homes and Communities Agency and the South East England Development Agency on the establishment of a special purpose vehicle. [307849]
John Healey: No formal approach has been made to either CLG, BIS or HM Treasury by SEEDA or the HCA on a proposal to create a special purpose vehicle. Any such vehicle would need ministerial approval before commencing.
Housing: Armed Forces
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what powers and responsibilities local authorities have to rehouse armed forces personnel who have served in Afghanistan and their families. [308646]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Government recognise the immense contribution of the armed forces and are committed to ensuring that current and ex-service personnel have access to the accommodation they and their families need.
Local authorities have powers to provide social housing (either within their own stock or by nomination to
housing associations in their district) for any armed forces personnel (or people who have left the armed forces) and their families who choose to make an application.
Local authorities must allocate social housing according to their allocation scheme. Statutory guidance published by this Department last month ("Fair and flexible: Statutory guidance on social housing allocations for local authorities in England"), makes clear that those in greatest housing need must be given priority. But it also gives councils more freedom to allocate their homes according to needs specific to their local area.
To improve access to social housing, we have changed the legislation to enable service personnel to establish a 'local connection' in the district in which they are serving. Changes to the local connection provisions were made by the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and were brought into force on 1 December 2008. These changes enable service personnel to establish a local connection with the district where they live or work while serving in the forces. These changes improve the position of service personnel by ensuring that their priority for social housing is not undermined, and that they are treated on the same basis as civilians in a similar situation.
Under the homelessness legislation, local authorities must secure suitable accommodation for applicants who are eligible for assistance (certain categories of person from abroad are ineligible), homeless through no fault of their own and who fall within a priority need group. The priority need groups include people who are vulnerable as a result of having been a member of Her Majesty's regular naval, military or air forces.
Housing: Databases
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 20 October 2009, Official Report, column 1393W, on housing: databases, what annual payment is made by the Valuation Office Agency to Ordnance Survey to licence the datasets to undertake the geo-referencing; what other payments are made by the Valuation Office Agency to Ordnance Survey in relation to the work; what the total monetary value of such other payments has been to date; and whether Ordnance Survey receives any data or benefit in kind from the Valuation Office Agency as part of this work. [308385]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is entitled to receive a variety of Ordnance Survey datasets as a member of the Pan Government Agreement, for which it contributes to a central annual payment by Government under the terms of the agreement.
In addition Ordnance Survey and the VOA have been working together to align their spatial address databases as part of their joint commitment to Smarter Government.
Under this collaboration, Ordnance Survey supplies VOA with a copy of OS MasterMap((r)) Address Layer 2 for which no charge is made by Ordnance Survey.
VOA has two address databases covering properties subject to council tax and premises subject to non domestic rates respectively. Under the joint collaboration, the VOA provides Ordnance Survey with a copy of the council tax address data which Ordnance Survey matches to its own address database. Ordnance Survey provides
the VOA with information on any corrections to the post code information held within the VOA's council tax database, which have been identified by the address matching process. No charge is made by the VOA for supplying the council tax address data and no payments are made by the VOA to Ordnance Survey in respect of the information provided to the VOA by Ordnance Survey as a result of the address matching work it undertakes.
Following the address matching process, Ordnance Survey includes the VOA's Unique Address Reference Number (UARN) within OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, and also within a table of cross references to others' unique address identifiers. This cross reference table is available from Ordnance Survey free of charge.
Ordnance Survey licences the non domestic rates address data from the VOA for address matching against Ordnance Survey's address database, on the VOA's standard commercial terms.
Housing: Energy
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average (a) current and (b) potential energy efficiency rating band is for homes in each local authority area. [308065]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 16 December 2009, Official Report, column 1283W.
Housing: Immigrants
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of all housing demand was due to net migration into England in the latest period for which figures are available. [307072]
John Healey: It is not possible to measure historical demand for housing; the principal proxy of the gross number of new households that have recently formed is derived from the Survey of English Housing.
Housing: Nottingham
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding under the Housing Pledge is planned to be spent in Nottingham North constituency in the next 12 months. [309019]
John Healey: The Housing Pledge is delivered through the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which operates and plans at a local authority level. Information on allocations under the housing stimulus package can be found on the HCA's website at:
Housing: Prices
Grant Shapps:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 8 December 2009, Official Report, column 305W, on housing: prices, what the average sale price
of a home in a rural area was in each of the last 20 quarters. [306907]
Mr. Ian Austin [holding answer 14 December 2009]:The average sale price of a home in a rural area in England for each of the last 20 quarters is presented as follows:
| Rural local authorities (£) | |
| Notes: 1. Local authorities that are classed as rural under the DEFRA rural codes have been included and local authorities classed as urban by DEFRA have been filtered out. 2. Data for 2009 Q2 are provisional. 3. Figures are neither seasonally adjusted nor adjusted to take into account the differing mix of properties sold in each period, so comparisons between quarters are not recommended. Source: Land Registry. | |
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