§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many local housing authorities in England have published a housing strategy; and how many of the published strategies contain policies for reducing the incidence of empty homes. [150124]
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§ Keith HillAll local housing authorities in England have housing strategies. Information on the number which include specific policies on empty homes is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. RosindellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the provision of affordable housing; and what plans he has to improve its availability. [150383]
§ Keith HillThe Government is acutely aware of the difficulties associated with shortages of good quality housing at an affordable price. A programme of action to address this, and to tackle poor condition housing and low demand and abandonment, was set out in "Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future", launched on 5 February 2003. The programme for affordable housing focuses on: improving the effectiveness of the planning system; the establishment of four growth areas to alleviate the overall housing pressures in London and surrounding areas; and targeted limitations on the right to buy. In addition Kate Barker, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, is carrying out a review of issues underlying the lack of supply and responsiveness of housing in the UK.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has increased the funding for provision of additional affordable housing through the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme to around £5 billion for the three years 2003–04 to 2005–06; £1 billion of this will be spent on housing for key workers. Some £600 million is being made available over the same period to support work in the growth areas which will be used for site assembly/remediation of brownfield land and infrastructure as well as providing additional affordable housing.
§ Mr. RosindellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has for the re-development of council-owned housing estates during the next 10 years. [150385]
§ Keith HillThe Sustainable Communities Plan sets out the policies, resources and partnerships necessary to transform our communities. This includes the steps we are taking to regenerate council-owned housing estates, for example, through the work of the market renewal pathfinders, our decent homes policy and through various liveability initiatives.
Key among these are:
307W£500 million over the next two years to secure transformation of housing markets in stock in nine areas where demand is particularly weak. All of the nine market renewal pathfinder project intervention areas contain a mixture of social and private sector housing. The pathfinder schemes are being designed in such a way as to bring major benefits both in terms of improving demand for housing and reaching decent homes target;a commitment to ensuring that all social housing is made decent by 2010. In delivering this commitment, local authorities are encouraged to ensure the outcome is sustainable in the long term by taking a view about the future demand for their council estates. Therefore in some areas delivery may be achieved through a mixture of demolition, re-modelling and refurbishment; and£201 million for programmes to create more liveable places and improve the local environment for communities.In addition, the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal is helping to tackle multiple deprivation in the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country with a focus on the five key themes of crime, health, employment, education, and housing and the physical environment. For instance, housing interventions as part of the New Deal for Communities programme include renovating houses, the development of master plans for housing, elimination of vacant and derelict housing and redevelopment projects.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average waiting time is for a person to be re-housed in Chorley for(a) all housing and (b) old age pensioner housing. [150406]
§ Keith HillThe average waiting time for people to be re-housed by Chorley Borough Council is tabled as follows:
Average wait to he re-housed (days) All housing OAP Statutory homeless 2000–01 245 402 67 2001–02 244 425 43 2002–03 270 377 89 2003–04 244 331 135
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the waiting list figures are in Chorley for(a) all housing and (b) old age pensioner housing for each of the last five years. [150407]
§ Keith HillThe waiting list figures for Chorley Borough Council in each the last five years are tabled as follows:
Current waiting list figures (houses) QAP Others Total Homeless applications Total 1999–2000 83 112 195 Unknown 195 2000–01 110 257 367 459 826 2001–02 133 507 640 508 1,148 2002–03 191 937 1,128 493 1,621 2003–04 270 1,358 1,655 434 2,089