Housing (Hansard, 17 May 2004)

§ Mr. Edward Davey
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many(a) affordable housing units and (b) housing units have been built in (i) England and (ii) each English region in each year since 1980. [172878]

§ Keith Hill
The national and regional figures that are available are published in Housing Statistics 2003 (Tables 2.2 and 2.5c). These tables each include a breakdown for those new dwellings built by local authorities and registered social landlords for social renting. A copy of this publication is available in the Library of the House.

§ Mr. Edward Davey
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many affordable homes were empty for(a) less than 12 months and (b) more than 12 months in (i) England and (ii) each English region in each year since 1980. [172880]

§ Keith Hill
No data is available for empty affordable homes. However, a table with data on empty local authority dwellings from 1983 and empty registered social landlord (RSL) dwellings from 1990 has been made available in the Library of the House.

§ Bob Spink
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the local authorities in Essex which(a) retain control of housing stocks and (b) have made representations to him about large scale voluntary transfer of their housing stocks. [173085]

§ Keith Hill
In Essex those local authorities which retain direct control of their housing stock are: Basildon, Braintree, Brentwood, Castle Point, Epping Forest, Harlow, Rochford, Tenering, Thurrock and Uttlesford.
Both Maldon and Chelmsford have transferred their stock to registered social landlords under the Large Scale Voluntary Transfer programme (LSVT). To date no other authorities in Essex have formally applied for LSVT.
Colchester has established an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) for its stock. The housing stock in Colchester is still owned by the local authority but is managed by the ALMO.

§ Norman Baker
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will take steps to discourage migration within the UK from areas of sufficient housing supply to those where it is in deficit. [173112]

§ Keith Hill
It is not the policy of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to discourage, or prevent, movement within the UK. To do so would be to undermine the flexibility of our labour market and, with it, economic growth. Statistical returns do not suggest that large scale migration is taking place between English regions.
Constraining growth in the more successful regions would not necessarily benefit the less successful ones, but the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is committed to improving the performance of all the regions and to reducing the disparities in growth between them through targets in our Regional Economic Performance Public Service Agreement.
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The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is also working to regenerate those areas worst hit by population loss through our market renewal pathfinders. The programme aims to tackle the low demand and abandonment in these areas and create a balanced and sustainable housing market for the future.

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will publish the provisional findings of 2002–03 data from the English House Condition Survey; how many(a) council and (b) registered social landlord properties that were classified in the survey as non-decent; and what the total cost of the repair backlog on these properties is. [173413]

§ Keith Hill
There are no provisional figures for 2002 from the continuous English House Condition Survey (EHCS).
The continuous survey was designed to provide estimates combining data from two years which could then be rolled forward annually.
The first results from the continuous EHCS, updating the published 2001 baseline and based on the 2002–03 and 2003–04 financial years, will be available before the end of 2004.

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he will announce a target for the provision of additional social housing to address long-term need. [173414]

§ Keith Hill
The Government have accepted that there is a case for increased investment in social housing and will begin to address this in the 2004 Spending Review. There are currently no plans to announce a long-term target for the overall provision of additional social housing.

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the Government expect to meet its target of 100,000 affordable homes by 2004; and what the state of progress was on 1 April. [173415]

§ Keith Hill
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is on course to achieve our target to provide 100,000 new or improved homes for low cost renting or owning in the three years to 1 April 2004. Provisional figures indicate that 103,000 homes have been provided.

§ Mr. Drew
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) whether the Government are on track to achieve their target of elimination of non-decent stock by 2010; and what proportion of stock remained non-decent on 1 April; [173416]
(2) whether the Government achieved their target of cutting the number of non-decent local authority homes by a third by April; and how many local authority homes were classed non-decent on 1 April; [173417]
(3) whether the Government achieved their target of cutting the number of non-decent housing association homes by a third by April; and how many housing association homes were classed as non-decent on 1 April. [173418]

§ Keith Hill
The target of eliminating non-decent social sector stock in 2010 is challenging but the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is making good progress, reducing the number of non-decents by 1 million since 727W 1997. The increase in resources to £3.6 billion per year by 2005–06 together with the package announced on 5 May put us on track.
The milestone of one third reduction applies to the whole social sector not the sectors individually. Our estimates of the position at 1 April 2004, based on local authority and housing association outturn up to March 2003 and their plans to March 2004 shows a 26 per cent. reduction across both sectors. We expect to meet the one third reduction during 2004. From the same data source we estimate the proportion of non-decent homes remaining at 1 April 2004 is 28 per cent.
for the local authority sector the estimated reduction by 1 April 2004 is 32 per cent. with 810,000 non-decents remaining. For housing association it is 6 per cent. with 360,000 non-decents remaining. These figures take into account the impact of the transfer of stock from local authorities to housing associations.

§ Mr. Gordon Marsden
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how the change in the level of council funding for housing has affected the residents of Blackpool, South since 1997. [173072]

§ Keith Hill
Since 1997 allocations of capital funding to local authorities for housing purposes have risen consistently by about 15 per cent. per annum on average. This includes the Major Repairs Allowance introduced in 2001–02 specifically for the improvement of local authority stock, alongside the Decent Homes standard which sets out minimum standards to be met by 2010. Blackpool's allocations in the period 1997 to 2003–04 have risen by 109 per cent. In addition to this welcome increase there is support through the Community Housing Task Force and Government Office for the North West to help the local authority and its tenants to choose the best strategy for long-term improvement.