Questions
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total number of properties classified as affordable homes built in 2008; and what percentage of these homes remain unoccupied. [HL1628]
New affordable homes are additional housing units (or bed spaces) provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market, and include social rent, intermediate rent and low cost home ownership.
There were 43,560 new affordable homes built in England in 2007-08. Not all affordable housing is provided by new build completions, as some supply can come from acquisitions. A total of 53,730 affordable homes were provided in England in 2007-08.
The affordable housing figures are collected by CLG on a financial year basis, the latest figures being 2007-08.
CLG do not collect figures showing the number of affordable homes provided in 2007-08 that remain unoccupied. The Housing Strategy Statistical Return (HSSA) includes figures on the total number of vacant local authority and registered social landlord social rented homes, but these cannot be broken down to show how many of these were newly provided affordable homes in 2007-08.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many properties not classified as affordable homes which were unsold on the open market they have bought from developers to be used for social housing. [HL1629]
In May 2008, the Government announced a plan to take advantage of market opportunities to bring private sector developer stock into the affordable housing sector by providing £200 million of funding through the Housing Corporation's national affordable housing programme (AHP) for the purchase of homes from house builders.
To the end of January 2009 around £198 million had been allocated from the initial £200 million. This funding is expected to deliver 5,700 affordable homes around 4,000 of which will be for social rent.