To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent steps the Government have taken to improve social housing in the north-east. (181550)

Since 2003, the Government have been working with all local authorities to implement the Decent Homes programme. This is being done in conjunction with new arrangements for housing management through the Options Appraisal process. The initial target was that all council homes should be improved to an agreed standard by 2010, although in some local circumstances later dates have been agreed.

In the north-east region some authorities have retained their housing stock, while others have chosen to manage their stock through arms length management organisations (ALMO) or have transferred their stock to registered social landlords as part of the large scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) arrangements.

Progress towards achieving the Decent Homes standard in the north-east region among those authorities still owning properties (either Retention or ALMO) is as set out below. For LSVT authorities who have transferred their stock, the situation is that progress to the Decent Homes standard is an integral part of their business planning process and all RSLs in the north-east indicate that they are on target to achieve the Decent Homes standard by 2010.

Recent publication of the ‘New Performance Framework for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnership’ presents a set of national indicators for use in the current local area agreement (LAA) negotiations. One of these potential indicators, NI158, usefully refers to the ‘percentage of decent council homes’.