§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he expects to publish the Green Paper on housing policy announced in the last Budget; and if he will make a statement. [93307]
§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he expects to publish the Green Paper on Housing Policy; and if he will make a statement. [93546]
§ Mr. RaynsfordWe intend to publish a Housing Policy Green Paper later this year. The Green Paper will set out our policy options for delivering our objectives in housing to ensure that everyone is offered the opportunity of a decent home and to promote social cohesion, well-being and self-dependence.
§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many responses he has received to the consultation paper, "Licensing Houses in Multiple Occupation-England"; 349W when he expects to announce his decisions on the proposed new licensing scheme; whether those decisions will be included in the Green Paper on housing policy; when he plans to consult on the standards applicable to the licensing scheme; and if he will make a statement. [93305]
§ Mr. Raynsford475 consultation responses have been received to date. We are carefully analysing them and will announce our conclusions as soon as we are able to do so. The Government are currently considering the issues which should be included for consultation in the Green Paper. I cannot yet say when we will be in a position to consult on HMO standards.
§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how much has been spent from the Single Regeneration Budget on(a) building new social housing, (b) renovating existing social housing and (c) private sector renovation schemes; and how much matching funding from other sources has been put into SRB schemes to be spent on (i) building new social housing, (ii) renovating existing social housing and (iii) private sector renovation schemes in each Regional Development Agency area for each year since the SRB was introduced. [93298]
§ Mr. MealeThe Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) currently funds over 500 (Rounds 1-4) regeneration schemes managed by local partnerships. A large number of these are likely to have multiple objectives, and cover a wide range of activities depending on local regeneration needs and priorities. It is not possible to break down expenditure to say how much has benefited one objective, therefore no information is available on the amount spent on building new social housing or on renovating social or private sector housing.
There is no specific matching funding requirement for SRB bids but partnerships are encouraged to maximise the leverage of private sector investment and funding from other public spending programmes. In the four Rounds to 31 March 1999, it is estimated that the total lifetime SRB allocation of £3.4 billion will lever in around £7.6 million of private sector investment over the same period.