§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proposals he has to increase the standard of living conditions in areas of council housing. [98463]
§ Mr. McNultyAs set out in "Sustainable communities: building for the future" launched by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 5 February(copies of which are available in the Library) the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is investing £2.8 billion over the next three years to improve council housing and reforming the way targets are delivered to make all social housing decent by 2010.
Alongside this, funds have been provided for 'liveability'(£201 million), neighbourhood wardens (£50 million), groundwork (£40 million) and `Community Enablers'(£27 million), all of which will contribute to improving living conditions in areas of council housing. Proposals for tackling anti-social behaviour will be set out in a White Paper and Bill planned for this year.
§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what improvements have been made to council houses since 1997; and how much has been invested in council housing in each year since 1997. [98464]
§ Mr. McNultyThe resources provided by central government to support housing investment by local authorities in England since 1997–98 are tabled below. The table also gives figures for the amount of capital expenditure by authorities on the council housing stock. The number of council houses which failed to meet the decent standard fell from 1.9 million in 1996 to 1.2 million in 2001. Around half of this reduction resulted from transfers to housing associations, where extensive improvement programmes will have been agreed as part of the transfer, Right to Buy sales and demolitions.
£million Central Government support for housing Capital1 capital spend by authorities on council housing 1997–98 926 1,563 1998–99 1,211 1,660 1999–2000 1,252 1,569 2000–01 1,891 1,816 2001–02 2,377 2,120 2002–03 2,474 22,505 2003–04 2,686 Not yet available 1Includes housing credit approvals, the Major Repairs Allowance, Arms Length Management Organisation resources and support for Disabled Facilities Grants and Cash Incentive Schemes. 2Planned expenditure
§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many council houses have been sold since 1997; and how many council houses there are in the UK. [98465]
§ Mr. McNultyInformation on the total number of council house sales in the United Kingdom up to March 2002 is currently incomplete. However, between April 1997 and March 2002 it is estimated that there were approximately 706,000 council house sales in Great Britain, about 380,000 of which were transfers to registered social landlords. Latest available estimates of 713W dwelling stock in the United Kingdom are as at 31 March 2001, when some 3,684,000 dwellings were rented from local authorities; the corresponding estimate for Great Britain was 3,558,000.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of and how many council stock properties are classified as non decent in(a) Hull, (b) the East Riding and (c) North East Lincolnshire. [99059]
§ Mr. McNultyLocal authorities provide estimates of the number and proportions of homes they own that are non decent in their Business plans. The figures provided in the plans submitted in July 2002 are as follows.
Non-decent dwellings⋆ %of stock non-decent Kingston upon Hull 27,640 80 East Riding of Yorkshire 5,260 43 North East Lincolnshire 3,000 33 ⋆Estimates rounded to the nearest 10
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to(a) provide funding and (b) allow councils to tackle repair and improvement backlogs, if tenants vote to stay with the council. [99056]
§ Mr. McNultyThere are two routes—Arms Length Management Organisation and the Private Finance Initiative—through which local authorities can access additional resources to bring their council housing up to a decent standard by 2010. Substantial increases in the resources available for both these programmes were announced earlier this month in our action programme "Sustainable communities: building for the future". The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has just completed a Review which identified ways of making these programmes more effective. The main findings were set out in the publication Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future.