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Housing: Low Incomes

Volume 496: debated on Monday 20 July 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many affordable homes have been built in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each of the last five years. (285479)

(2) how many homes for social rent have been built in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each of the last five years.

(3) how many properties he expects to be added to the stock of social rented housing through (a) construction and (b) purchase in (i) Essex and (ii) Castle Point in (A) 2009-10 and (B) each of the next four years.

The following table shows the number of new affordable homes built in Essex and Castle Point in each of the last five years.

Castle Point

Essex

2003-04

0

350

2004-05

30

500

2005-06

0

840

2006-07

0

660

2007-08

20

1,260

The following table shows the number of new social rented homes built in Essex and Castle Point in each of the last five years.

Castle Point

Essex

2003-04

0

330

2004-05

30

450

2005-06

0

650

2006-07

0

490

2007-08

10

840

Note: Figures have been rounded to nearest 10 units. Source: Homes and Communities Agency Investment Management System (IMS), and local authority returns to CLG.

Not all social rented and affordable housing is provided by new build completions, as some supply can come from acquisitions. For example, in 2007-08, a total of 1,440 additional affordable homes were provided in Essex (new build and acquisitions).

Communities and Local Government do not set targets for the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) at a local level. The Homes and Communities Agency's National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) awards grant funding for the provision of social housing on the basis of competitive bidding.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding has been (a) allocated to and (b) spent in the West Midlands under the My Choice HomeBuy scheme in 2009-10. (286334)

We have not set individual budgets for each HomeBuy scheme to ensure flexibility within the Homes and Communities Agency’s National Affordable Housing programme 2008-11.

To the end of June £953,055 had been spent on My Choice HomeBuy in the West Midlands.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government during what periods bidding has taken place for funding under the (a) HomeBuy Direct, (b) New Build HomeBuy, (c) Rent to HomeBuy and (d) the First time Buyers initiative since the inception of each scheme. (286398)

An Official Journal of the European Union compliant competition to select suitable schemes and providers for HomeBuy Direct commenced on 1 October and closed on 7 November 2008.

FTBI schemes were procured by the former English Partnerships in 2006-07.

For the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP), bidding for the 2006-08 programme took place between July and October 2005. The initial bid round for the 2008-11 programme ran from September to early November 2007. This was followed by two Regular Market Engagements (RME). The first RME bid round ran from mid-April to mid-May 2008 and the second ran in July 2008. From September 2008 we moved to Continuous Market Engagement under which there are no longer pre-defined bid rounds and bidding is always open.

New Build HomeBuy and Rent to HomeBuy are part of the NAHP.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has spent on Rent to HomeBuy in 2009-10 to date. (286422)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what effect the decision to end the Open Market HomeBuy scheme will have on other HomeBuy schemes. (286811)

The Government remain committed to helping households who could not otherwise afford to buy into homeownership and the HomeBuy Direct, New Build HomeBuy and Rent to HomeBuy schemes remain available to help those who cannot afford to purchase without Government assistance.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his plans are for the future operation of OpenMarket HomeBuy; and if he will make a statement. (287726)

I refer my hon. Friend to my written statement to the House on 30 June 2009, Official Report, columns 8-10WS.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his most recent estimate is of the level of take-up of OpenMarket HomeBuy in each region; and how many purchases were made under what scheme in (a) 2007-08, (b) 2008-09 and (c) 2009 to date; and what the monetary value of those purchases was in each period. (287727)

I refer the hon. Member to my written statement to the House on 30 June 2009, Official Report, columns 8-9WS. Since 1997, we have helped over 35,000 households through the Open Market HomeBuy scheme. However, we want to maximise our efforts behind building of new affordable homes, so we are closing the open market homebuy scheme to new applicants and in future our low cost home ownership programme will be directed to schemes which support new build homes.

The following table shows the take-up of, and number of purchases made through Open Market HomeBuy by scheme and region for 2007-08, 2008-09 and the first quarter of 2009-10.

Number

2007-08

2008-091

2009-101

eOMHB

Mychoice homebuy

Ownhome

eOMHB2

Mychoice homebuy

Ownhome

Eastern

455

151

40

52

30

1

East Midlands

60

625

81

292

182

0

London

624

1,072

158

191

268

0

North East

9

15

10

3

1

0

North West

181

101

56

87

23

0

South East

904

1,176

198

412

255

12

South West

286

393

137

158

48

2

West Midlands

133

228

68

124

26

5

Yorks and Humber

97

165

51

79

8

0

Total

2,749

3,926

799

1,398

841

20

The following table shows Government investment on open market homebuy by scheme and region for 2007-08, 2008-09 and the first quarter of 2009-10.

£

2007-08

2008-091

2009-101

eOMHB

Mychoice homebuy

Ownhome

eOMHB2

Mychoice homebuy

Ownhome

Eastern

12,646,571

3,700,539

886,598

1,355,608

981,494

21,345

East Midlands

1,302,182

20,410,497

2,208,860

9,434,277

6,955,301

0

London

21,709,182

55,687,444

5,603,082

7,840,091

13,540,200

0

North East

202,916

374,546

185,200

69,138

32,335

0

North West

3,807,132

2,424,249

1,226,558

2,039,110

763,443

0

South East

27,484,354

37,648,932

5,755,648

13,998,812

10,679,519

332,391

South West

7,047,391

10,864,285

3,683,044

4,719,230

1,785,254

85,656

West Midlands

2,575,689

5,729,820

1,489,892

2,706,973

953,055

77,010

Yorks and Humber

2,281,400

3,951,227

1,140,239

2,111,025

234,567

0

Total

79,056,817

140,791,539

22,179,121

44,274,264

35,925,168

484,662

1 2008-09 and 2009-10 figures are provisional.

2 eOMHB: Transitional arrangement for those households who had already been approved in 2007-08.

Source:

Homes and Communities Agency.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many potential homebuyers have been informed that their applications to the MyChoice Homebuy scheme have been refused as a result of all the scheme's funding having been allocated. (288227)

The total number of people contacted is not held centrally.

Funding for the MyChoice HomeBuy scheme is confirmed only at the point when the equity loan provider has approved an applicant's purchase in writing. Applicants are always advised not to incur any costs until they have received written confirmation from the equity loan provider stating that their chosen property is eligible, that funding has been reserved for them and confirming that the applicant can proceed with their purchase.

Applicants who have not received confirmation have been contacted by MyChoice HomeBuy providers informing them that funding has been fully committed and that the scheme is now closed.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many homes for (a) intermediate low cost ownership and (b) social rent he expects to be (i) started and (ii) completed in each local authority area in each of the next three years. (288491)

We do not make future estimates of the number of intermediate affordable homes and social rented homes started and completed by local authority area.