The Decent Homes Programme

The Decent Homes Programme PDF

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-01-21

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102963410

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It is estimated that over a million social homes have been improved by the Department for Communities and Local Government's Decent Homes Programme, which aims to improve the condition of homes for social housing tenants. The Department has also provided funding to improve conditions for vulnerable households in private sector accommodation. The Programme has made progress and that, as of April 2009, 86 per cent of homes in the social sector were classed as decent. The Programme has also brought wider benefits such as improved housing management, tenant involvement and employment opportunities. The original target was that all social sector homes would be decent by 2010, but by November 2009 the Department was estimating that approximately 92 per cent of social housing would meet the standard by 2010, leaving 305,000 properties 'non-decent'. 100 per cent decency would not be achieved until 2018-19. The National Audit Office has concluded that there are weaknesses in the information collected by the Department, warning that information gaps create a risk to value for money. Weaknesses in the Department's information are illustrated by uncertainties over the total cost of the Programme to itself or to the sector and the number of properties improved.

The Decent Homes Programme

The Decent Homes Programme PDF

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-03-18

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780215544865

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Under the Decent Homes Programme, over a million homes have been improved since 2001. The living standards of vulnerable households will have been greatly improved by the installation of, for example, 810,000 new kitchens, 610,000 new bathrooms and 1,140,000 new central heating systems. There have also been wider benefits such as more tenant involvement in housing decisions and jobs created in deprived areas. The report welcomes the improvements made and the substantial progress towards the original target of all social housing being of a decent standard by December 2010. However, despite this progress, the target will not be met: 305,000 homes will still be non-decent at that date and the last of these will not be decent until 2018-19. The DCLG needs to do more to ensure that landlords can complete this outstanding work and that properties are not allowed to fall back into disrepair. It also needs to improve its financial control over this Programme. It is still not clear how much the Department itself has actually spent on the Programme, nor whether DCLG has obtained best value from the funds given to Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs). The Programme will have cost local authorities and Registered Social Landlords approximately £37 billion by 2010-11. The Department lacks some basic management information on the Programme, and needs to address these deficiencies in order to evaluate the impact properly.

Quantifying the Health Benefits of the Decent Homes Programme

Quantifying the Health Benefits of the Decent Homes Programme PDF

Author: Helen Garrett

Publisher: Bre Press

Published: 2014-04-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781848063631

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A summary of unique research to quantify how much the improvements to social housing arising from the Decent Homes programme (2001-2010) have reduced costs to the NHS in treating housing-related injuries and illnesses.

Beyond decent homes

Beyond decent homes PDF

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-03-23

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9780215544988

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The £40bn Decent Homes Programme has had a positive effect on the living conditions of most social housing tenants, this report finds, but the Government has failed to invest enough resources in the parallel programme to improve homes occupied by vulnerable people in the private sector. The Government must also clarify future funding: it is still unclear how the elimination of the remaining backlog of disrepair (around 3 per cent of social homes) will be funded; and how much will be available to maintain standards in the future. The Government must prevent another backlog of disrepair from building up after the current programme comes to an end in 2010. Carbon emissions reduction targets mean that the entire UK housing stock must be made more energy efficient. The decent homes standard has an important part to play and should be updated to enable this. The use of arm's-length management organisations (ALMOs) to manage council housing has led to improved standards and better planning, though not all councils were able to follow this model. The decent homes standard remains a low benchmark, however. The target for decency applied to private housing should be retained and strengthened by creating a National Indicator for private sector accommodation. A clear long term target should be set at a national level to bring all private sector homes (not just those occupied by vulnerable people) up to the decent homes standard.

Communities and Local Government's Departmental Annual Report 2008

Communities and Local Government's Departmental Annual Report 2008 PDF

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9780215526601

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In its report of last year on the Communities and Local Government's Departmental Annual Report 2007 (HC 170, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215037978) the Committee commented on the particular nature of the Department's work: on its unusual reliance for the achievement of the goals Government has set it on a plethora of other Departments, agencies, non-departmental bodies, local authorities and other stakeholders; on the long, devolved delivery chains by which those goals therefore have to be delivered; and on the skills of influence, brokering and negotiation which are required to achieve them. In this Report the Committee assesses the progress made since last. The most recent Cabinet Office Capability Review concludes that there has been a positive "direction of travel" for CLG in that period, but the Committee concludes that there is still some way to go before CLG can be said to be performing at the highest achievable level of effectiveness. The Department's overall performance against its Public Service Agreement targets is likewise moving in the right direction but still short of full effectiveness. Achievement of efficiency targets is applauded. Finally, the report considers examples of particular policies which highlight some of the Department's strengths and weaknesses, and follow up some issues in earlier inquiries. These issues include: eco-towns; the Decent Homes programme; Home Information Packs; Fire Service response times; Firebuy; the FiReControl programme. The report also considers the Department's response to the serious flooding of summer 2007, and to the reviews which followed; and the mismanagement of European Regional Development Fund monies.

Existing Housing and Climate Change

Existing Housing and Climate Change PDF

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780215514424

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The UK contains more than 26 million homes which, collectively, emitted 41.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2004. This book includes chapters, which examine: regulation and encouragement; financial incentives; energy performance certificates; breaching the barriers to change; newer technologies; and, older buildings.

The Supply of Rented Housing

The Supply of Rented Housing PDF

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9780215520548

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Incorporating HC 47-i-vii session 2006-07

Social Housing in Europe

Social Housing in Europe PDF

Author: Kathleen Scanlon

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-04-21

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 1118412389

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All countries aim to improve housing conditions for their citizens but many have been forced by the financial crisis to reduce government expenditure. Social housing is at the crux of this tension. Policy-makers, practitioners and academics want to know how other systems work and are looking for something written in clear English, where there is a depth of understanding of the literature in other languages and direct contributions from country experts across the continent. Social Housing in Europe combines a comparative overview of European social housing written by scholars with in-depth chapters written by international housing experts. The countries covered include Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands and Sweden, with a further chapter devoted to CEE countries other than Hungary. The book provides an up-to-date international comparison of social housing policy and practice. It offers an analysis of how the social housing system currently works in each country, supported by relevant statistics. It identifies European trends in the sector, and opportunities for innovation and improvement. These country-specific chapters are accompanied by topical thematic chapters dealing with subjects such as the role of social housing in urban regeneration, the privatisation of social housing, financing models, and the impact of European Union state aid regulations on the definitions and financing of social housing.

Climate Change - the UK Programme 2006

Climate Change - the UK Programme 2006 PDF

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0215030729

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This publication contains oral and written evidence taken before the Committee in their inquiry into the Government's Climate Change Programme announced in March 2006 (in its White Paper 'Tomorrow's Climate, Today's Challenge' Cm. 6764, ISBN 0101676425). It includes contributions from officials from Defra, the Confederation of British Industry, the UK Sustainable Development Commission, Greater London Authority and local authorities.

Energy efficiency and fuel poverty

Energy efficiency and fuel poverty PDF

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009-06-10

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780215530622

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With failure to meet its statutory obligation to end fuel poverty imminent, the Government should instigate an action plan as a matter of urgency to help the millions of UK households who remain in fuel poverty as a result of fuel price rises. This report (HCP 37, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215530622) on Energy efficiency and fuel poverty from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee states, that the Winter Fuel Payment should be made taxable and stopped for those paying higher rate tax so that more money can be directed to fund bigger and better-targeted energy efficiency programmes aimed in the first instance at the fuel poor. To ensure more rapid improvement of the entire English housing stock, the range of current energy efficiency programmes should be consolidated into one comprehensive area-based programme to upgrade all homes and to be delivered by local authorities. The Committee wants the Government to: produce a detailed "road map" setting out how to deliver a national plan to make every home in England energy efficient to a minimum SAP level of 65 and to SAP 81 wherever practicable (SAP is the Government's Standard Assessment Procedure for Energy Rating of Dwellings and uses a scale of 1 to 100, with a higher rating indicating a better level of energy efficiency); create a central budget into which energy companies pay their CERT contributions so that they can be pooled with money from other programmes, to fund a single consolidated comprehensive, area-based programme led by local authorities to deliver the national plan. The Committee also concludes that: resources for tackling fuel poverty are inadequate and getting worse. Warm Front, should see its budget increased rather than cut repeatedly and should now be extended to include all hard-to-treat properties. All schemes designed to help the fuel poor or improve energy efficiency would be better targeted if those organisations in charge of their delivery had better access to data on a range of variables including energy efficiency levels in homes, household incomes and fuel costs. The Department for Energy & Climate Change should survey current data needs and access arrangements as a matter of urgency.

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