§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to meet regional planning guidance targets for affordable housing provision in the South West; and why the Housing Corporation is planning to fund fewer new homes per year for 2004 to 2006 in the South West than the 2001 Regional Planning Guidance target. [185181]
§ Keith HillThe policy of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister—as set out in Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 (PPG3)—is not to set region-wide targets or quotas for affordable housing. Targets are more appropriately set at the local level as they are, necessarily, derived from local circumstances and assessments. The figures set out in Regional Planning Guidance for the South West (RPG10) are, therefore, not a target but an indicator against which the provision of affordable housing can be monitored. Although better quality information than currently available is needed to assess how we are progressing against this indicator, we do know that we are not yet providing sufficient affordable homes. That is why the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has accepted Kate Barker's recommendation that there should be a step-change in housing supply. Over the coming months, we will be consulting on a package of proposals designed to 7W achieve this, including the provision of independent advice to the Regions, which should improve significantly our ability to deliver and monitor the provision of affordable homes.
The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is also committing more resources to the delivery of affordable homes—the 2004 Spending Review will allow us to increase new social house building by 50 per cent. The Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme (ADP) for the financial years 2004–05 and 2005–06 is worth £188.2 million and will deliver approximately 6,000 affordable homes in the South West. However, the ADP is not the only means available to deliver affordable housing. The planning system also provides local authorities with other tools to deliver affordable homes.
PPG3 requires that Local Planning authorities should plan to meet the housing requirements of the whole community, including those in need of affordable and special needs housing. The provision of affordable housing is a local authority responsibility and should be made on the basis of robust local assessments of needs. Where need is clearly demonstrated for affordable housing, this should be taken into account in formulating development plan policies and in deciding planning applications involving housing.