HC Deb 13 February 2004 vol 418 cc26-7W
Mr. Hoban

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he assesses which reserve sites should be released to meet county level house building targets; and to what extent those borough councils that have already met their targets will be exempt from having to release reserve sites. [154820]

Keith Hill

It would be premature to take any decisions on where the release of the 'reserve' provision in Hampshire should take place, until after the Joint Advisory Panel have made their decision. The Strategic Planning Authorities have recently consulted upon a draft addendum to the Supplementary Planning Guidance 'Implementing Policy H4', which sets out a process for deciding the location of release. Performance against housing requirements is listed as one of the factors to be considered.

Mr. Hoban

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many local authorities have been assessed as not meeting their target for house building. [154821]

Yvette Cooper

Information on how many local authorities have been assessed as not meeting their house building target has not been collected centrally. However, performance on house building has formed part of the assessments made at the regional and strategic level for the preparation of revised Regional Planning Guidance and structure plans in each region.

Each local planning authority will be required, under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill, to report on their performance against their local development scheme and on the impact of their policies on the ground in their Annual Monitoring Report (AMR). Local planning authorities would be required to include information on housing policy and performance. Under draft clause 25 of the Bill, if the AMR indicates that they are not performing as desired, this should trigger the authority to revise their local development scheme (and subsequently their local development documents). If they fail to do so, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister can direct the authority to do so.