Housing

HC Deb 18 July 1995 vol 263 cc1066-8W

Mr. Raynsford

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to issue revised planning guidance note 3. [35190]

Mr. Robert B. Jones

I have no immediate plans for issuing a revised planning policy guidance note 3 (Housing).

Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the extent of repairs needed on local authority housing, in each region, indicating the cost of these repairs(a) per region and (b) in total. [34193]

Mr. Clappison

Figures for repairs to local authority housing are provided by the quinquennial English house condition survey. The figures from the 1991 survey are as follows:

Region	£ million
Northern	361
Yorkshire/Humberside	442
North West	541
East Midlands	259
West Midlands	424

Region	£ million
South West	265
Eastern	312
Greater London	657
South East	235
Merseyside	175
Total	3,671

Figures are in 1991 prices.

Mr. Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the level of funding currently provided for the provision of affordable housing in(a) the United Kingdom, (b) each European Union country and (c) each G7 country. [34194]

Mr. Clappison

In England in 1994–95, a total of £8.6 billion was spent on housing benefit to help social and private sector tenants on low incomes with their rents. Some £4.9 billion was spent on "bricks and mortar" spending to provide social housing at below-market rents and low-cost home ownership opportunities to households who might otherwise rent in the social sector and to help with the costs of maintaining and running council housing.

The comparable information requested in (b) is not available because of differing forms of subsidy in other countries. Information on levels of funding in the European Community can be found in "Statistics on Housing in the European Community 1993" which is available in the Library.

No information is readily available on levels of funding in G7 countries.

Mr. Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of local authorities establishing local public housing corporations to provide affordable housing. [34195]

Mr. Clappison

Borrowing by local housing corporations to provide affordable housing, although outside some fiscal indicators, such as the general Government financial deficit, would be within the public sector borrowing requirement. Moreover, if increased borrowing were supported by higher rents, it would increase expenditure on housing benefit which is within GGFD. The establishment of local housing corporations is unlikely therefore to be a means of permitting unrestricted borrowing for any purpose. The White Paper "Our Future Homes" (Cm 2901) explains that the transfer of council housing to new landlords which are private sector bodies is an effective way of generating increased investment. This requires no changes to public borrowing conventions.

Mr. Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions he has had with the Chancellor to exclude local public housing corporations from the remit of the public sector borrowing requirement. [34191]

Mr. Clappison

None.

Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his reply of 25 May,Official Report, column 792, what is his estimate of the additional homes which would have been provided by rehabilitation and under any other programmes under the Housing Corporation's standard headings in 1995–96, if funding levels as announced in the 1992 autumn statement had been maintained. [35175]

Mr. Clappison

The Housing Corporation estimates that the 1995–96 approved development programme would have provided a total of around 32,000 additional homes if the funding levels announced in the 1992 autumn statement had been maintained, comprising:

	Number
New Build for rent	22,000
Rehabilitation for rent	3,000
Incentives and shared ownership (400 of which would have been rehabilitation for shared ownership)	7,000

Mr. Waterson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to ensure that persons from abroad in the United Kingdom illegally or temporarily will not be able to obtain publicly subsidised housing. [36067]

Mr. Curry

The Government announced proposals for fairer access to local authority and housing association tenancies on 18 July 1994. The proposals envisaged that people here illegally and people who were granted entry to this country on the understanding that they will have no recourse to public funds should not be entitled to receive assistance under the homelessness legislation.

Subsequently, we have concluded that such people should not be entitled to tenancies of social housing allocated by local housing authorities. Provisions for this will be included in the legislation that we shall bring forward on access to social housing at the earliest opportunity.