Housing (Hansard, 23 January 2002)

§ Vera Baird
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what measures his Department is taking to improve the quality of housing in areas of deprivation. [28769]

§ Ms Keeble
In July 2000 the Government set a target to bring all social housing up to set standards of decency by 2010, tackling one-third of the problem by March 2004 with most of the improvement taking place in deprived local authority areas.
874W

§ Mr. Spellar
The following number of driving examiners were based at test centres in West Yorkshire:
"The Way Forward for Housing", the Government's housing policy statement, set out a range of measures many of which would contribute towards achieving this target, including: a significant increase in investment—an additional £1.8 billion was provided in the last spending review on top of increases announced in 1998 and 2000—much of which will benefit deprived areas; a range of investment options for local authority housing including transfer of homes to registered social landlords and arms-length management arrangements; and the introduction of local housing strategies.
A copy of the policy statement is in the Library.