To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in how many consecutive years a local authority is allowed to fail to meet its own target for the delivery of affordable housing as recorded in the Annual Monitoring Report before she will (a) call in the local plan and (b) direct the local authority to modify the plan. (118896)

The Secretary of State’s call-in powers in section 21 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 are relevant only in advance of the adoption of the plan by the local authority. The Secretary of State may issue a direction to a local authority to revise an adopted plan within a set time scale. The Secretary of State’s powers in this regard would be used only exceptionally, depending on the particular circumstances of the plan in question.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the report on the future of housing policy and access to social housing is due to be (a) completed and (b) published; and if she will make a statement. (143958)

Professor John Hills’s report ‘Ends and Means: The Future Role of Social Housing in England’ was published in February 2007.

The report has provoked a wide-ranging debate on the role of social housing in the 21st century. We are now carrying out a programme of work to address the issues raised.

As part of this programme, on 19 June we launched two key consultations ‘Delivering Housing & Regeneration: Communities England and the future of social housing regulation’, which outlines proposals to create a new housing and regeneration agency and responds to Professor Martin Cave’s review of social housing regulation ‘Every Tenant Matters’, also published on 19 June; and ‘Tenant Empowerment’, which outlines proposals to increase empowerment of social housing tenants.

Further details of these consultations are provided in the written statement ‘Delivering affordable housing, sustainable communities and better outcomes for tenants’, laid on 19 June 2007.