§ Mr. Clifton-BrownTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on progress since the announcement of the Thames Gateway Communities plan; how much public money has been spent; how much private sector capital has been committed; how much land has been acquired; how much land will be acquired; and over what timescale. [148199]
§ Yvette CooperI am pleased to be able to report substantial progress in the Thames Gateway even since my right hon. Friend the Member for Streatham announcement in July.
Delivery is the key to the Thames Gateway. The new UDC for Thurrock is now established and Chair and Board appointed, consultation on the London UDC will end on 6 February and new partnership bodies for the other growth areas in the Gateway are now in place. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister expects the new Gateway Office to be operational shortly.
The Thames Gateway expenditure programme provides £446 million over the three years commencing 2003–4. Projects worth £330 million have been accepted in principle for funding, and some £50 million worth of projects have been formally approved. These range from land acquisitions in London's Lower Lea valley, to affordable housing schemes with the Housing Corporation, a new lifelong learning centre for Barking, University campus expansions at Southend and Medway, and environmental Green Grid initiatives across South Essex and North Kent. In addition to this, the Regional Development Agencies, English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and Highways Agency are also undertaking projects which make a major contribution to the Gateway, including Barking Reach, Chatham Maritime, A 13 improvements and anew Swale Crossing.
Outline planning applications have been submitted for the key private sector developments at Stratford City and Ebbsfleet. These schemes alone represent private sector investment approaching £7 billion.
The Strategic Rail Authority confirmed shortly before Christmas that it will be proceeding with plans for domestic services on the Channel Tunnel Rail link as part of the new Integrated Kent Franchise, and more recently, my right hon. Friend Member for Edinburgh Central, has announced that he is offering financial support for the Thames Gateway Bridge, the proposed new river crossing in East London. Both are strategic projects which will strengthen the platform for new development, and will help to consolidate private sector confidence and involvement.
There are no targets for land acquisition in the Gateway; the need for land assembly by the public sector will be determined by market strength and interest. To date, funding from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister budget for land acquisitions is being pursued for projects in the Lower Lea for new mixed-use development, and in Sheppy, to promote new housing.
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§ Mr. Clifton-BrownTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many houses have been built under plans for the development of the Thames Gateway communities; how many are social housing; how many houses are planned to be built; and how many will be social housing. [148201]
§ Yvette CooperThe Government's policy for the development of sustainable communities in Thames Gateway and the Growth Areas was set out in "Creating Sustainable Communities: Making It Happen" in July 2003. The most recent annual house building figures for local authority areas contained within the Thames Gateway are for the 2002–03 financial year. Local authorities and the national house building council report a total new build of 7,865 houses for this period, of which 1,077 are social housing. It should be noted that these figures are totals for local authorities in Thames Gateway, but that some local authority areas fall only partially within the designated Thames Gateway region.
"Creating Sustainable Communities: Making It Happen" set a target for the Thames Gateway of the development of 120,000 new homes over the period to 2016, which is 40,000 above current planning targets. Projects worth £300 million were approved in July as part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's new Sustainable Communities funding package. These include funding for new affordable housing.
The Government do not set annual targets centrally for local authorities on either affordable or social housing. Planning policies for affordable housing are set out in Planning Policy Guidance note 3, "Housing", and in Circular 6/98, "Planning for Affordable Housing". They advise that where local planning authorities are able to demonstrate a lack of affordable housing to meet local needs, based on up-to-date surveys and other data, they should indicate in their local plan how many affordable homes need to be provided throughout the plan area, and set indicative targets for specific suitable sites (expressed either as numbers of homes or a percentage of the homes on the site). Local planning authorities should be monitoring their performance against their local plan policies and targets, but this information is not collected centrally.