§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 19 June 1998,Official Report, column 330, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposals recently issued by the London and South East Regional Planning Conference on housing need in the region; and what steps he plans in response to the Conference's statement that insufficient housing provision will be made for single people on low incomes. [50244]
§ Mr. CabornThe London and South East Regional Planning Conference (SERPLAN) is consulting on the draft strategy for the SE which assumes that a proportion of the new single households expected up to 2016 will not need separate accommodation. SERPLAN will need to consider the responses made to it during the consultation before preparing draft revised regional planning guidance. Draft guidance will be subject to a public examination in Spring next year before being issued by the Secretary of State. It is important that SERPLAN fully justifies the assumption it has made on single households, and that it makes clear the consequences of not fully providing for the housing needs of the projected number of households in the region.