Social Housing (Hansard, 7 November 2002)

§ Alan Simpson
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, how many respondents to the Consultation Paper on a Decency Standard for Social Housing supported the view that the proposed minimum standards required under the Thermal Comfort criteria were sufficiently rigorous; and how many took the opposing view. [79501]

§ Mr. McNulty
The Consultation Paper on refining the detail of the thermal comfort criterion of a decent home proposed two options:

(a) retaining the fuel poverty measure; and

(b) moving to a stock measure of thermal comfort which would require a dwelling to have both effective insulation and efficient heating.

619W
Of the 140 respondents to the consultation: 46% favoured moving to the proposed stock measure, 26% favoured moving to a stock measure but stated that they felt the standard proposed was too low, 25% rejected both proposals—many of these respondents suggested SAP although there was little consensus on what constituted an appropriate level; and 3% favoured the retention of fuel poverty as the measure.
Following the consultation a number of refinements were made to the definition of efficient heating and effective insulation before publishing the revised guidance. The main change was the requirement for higher levels of insulation in dwellings with electric storage heaters, programmable solid fuel or LPG central heating.

§ Ms Oona King
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many successful asylum applicants were subsequently housed in social housing in each Government Office region in each year since 1999.[79716]

§ Mr. McNulty
The Government do not collect information relating to the number of former asylum seekers granted refugee status or exceptional leave to remain who are housed in social housing.

§ Ms Oona King
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many of those recognised as refugees and granted indefinite leave to remain or exceptional leave to remain were later accepted as being owed a duty by a local authority under the Homelessness Act 2002 in each Government Office region in each year since 1999. [79715]

§ Mr. McNulty
The Government do not collect information about the number of persons granted refugee status or exceptional leave to remain who are allocated housing accommodation by local housing authorities under Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996, or allocated accommodation by registered social landlords. Nor does the Government collect information specifically about the number of persons granted refugee status or exceptional leave to remain who are accepted as owed a duty by a local housing authority under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002).
However, data about households accepted as being eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and whose last settled home were accommodation provided by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), has been collected from local housing authorities on the quarterly housing activity return (Form PIE) since April 2002. The degree of response and the quality of data received varied widely and the data we hold for the April to June 2002 quarter are not considered reliable. Information for the July to September 2002 quarter will be available in December 2002. These data do not, however, identify refugees and persons granted exceptional leave to remain who were not accommodated by NASS.
620W

§ Alan Simpson
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which of his Department's Public Service Agreements relate to fuel poverty reduction; and what progress has been made to date in achieving them. [79502]

§ Mr. McNulty
The Public Service Agreement to bring all social housing up to a decent standard and to increase the proportion of vulnerable households in the private sector who live in homes that are in decent condition by 2010 will contribute to a reduction in fuel poverty. To be classed as decent, a home must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort by providing efficient heating and effective insulation, measures which will make homes cheaper to heat.
On the social sector side of the target, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is on track to meet its interim target of tackling a third of the worst social housing by 2004 and is working to ensure it meets the target by reviewing all policies that contribute to the delivery of decent social housing to ensure they are as effective as possible and provide value for money.
For the private sector side of the target, officials are in the process of drawing up a delivery plan with colleagues in DEFRA responsible for the home energy efficiency scheme. The plan will set out in detail how the target will be delivered and include the steps that will be taken to ensure the contributing policies and procedures are working together as efficiently as possible.

§ Alan Simpson
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will estimate the number of fuel-poor households who occupy dwellings that meet the Thermal Comfort criteria of the Decent Homes Standard; and how many households in this sector will remain fuel poor after all social housing complies with the standard. [75904]

§ Mr. McNulty
We will not have up-to-date figures of the numbers of fuel poor households living in decent homes until we complete the relevant parts of the analysis of the 2001 English House Condition Survey, in early 2003. This work will be undertaken jointly between ODPM, DEFRA and DTI.
To estimate the numbers of households who will be living in fuel poor households after all social housing is brought up to a decent standard in 2010 requires a number of assumptions about influencing factors such as energy prices and incomes. We are not able to provide a robust estimate of these factors at this time.