§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the number of people living in multi-storey blocks of flats in England. [121819]
§ Keith HillDefining multi-storey blocks of flats as purpose built blocks of flats with at least three floors, the estimates tabled have been derived from the 2002–03 Survey of English Housing.
Thousands Number of floors in block of flats Number of persons Three or four 1,781 Five to nine 352 Ten or more 274 Total 2,407
§ Bob RussellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will encourage housing associations operating in the same district to merge for reasons of management control; and if he will make a statement. [121882]
§ Keith HillHousing associations are independent organisations whose boards are responsible for ensuring that their organisations are financially strong and flexible enough to operate in different markets and meet the needs of tenants.
109WHousing associations may themselves come to the conclusion that merger or rationalisation of their operations is in their organisation's and their tenants' interests. A number of them have already done this or are doing so, particularly where the effectiveness of neighbourhood management is inhibited by the presence of a large number of social landlords. The Housing Corporation, as regulator of housing associations, encourages and enables those who wish to pursue this route to do so.
§ Bob RussellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what powers he has to investigate the management by a housing association of its properties; and what the procedures are for initiating such an investigation. [121883]
§ Keith HillThe regulation of housing associations is the responsibility of the Housing Corporation, an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The Housing Corporation's regulatory code sets out minimum requirements for housing associations across a range of functions, including the management of properties. The Housing Corporation's regulation teams are responsible for ensuring these requirements are met and, where possible, exceeded.
The Housing Corporation introduced inspection as an important part of its range of regulatory activities in 2002. In April 2003, inspection of housing associations was transferred to a single social housing inspectorate at the Audit Commission, which was already responsible for the inspection of local authority housing services. The Housing Inspectorate is working with the Housing Corporation to drive up standards of service to tenants of housing associations.
There is a annual programme of inspections which is published by the Audit Commission.
Where the Audit Commission finds that standards of service to housing association tenants do not meet those set out in the Housing Corporation's Regulatory Code, the Corporation ensures that associations take action to bring about improvements, including using its statutory powers if necessary.