§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2002, ref. 46220, on social dwellings, if he will initiate discussions with the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to achieve a common UK definition of a decent home. [47881]
§ Ms KeebleThe Government have no plans to initiate any process that could lead to changing the definition. It is important at this stage that social landlords have certainty about the definition of the standard so that they can carry through their plans to meet it.
It is a matter for the devolved Administrations whether they wish to use the decent home definition. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive are planning to assess their stock against the decent home standard when the results of their 2001 House Condition Survey are available. The Welsh Assembly Government have developed the 'Welsh Housing Quality Standard' for housing in Wales, starting with the social housing sector. In the medium term the Scottish Executive are likely to develop an index of housing quality for assessing the quality of the Scottish stock.