Levels of overcrowding and under-occupation are measured using the “bedroom standard”, which is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number, ages and relationship of the household members) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household.

The answer is taken from the English Housing Survey 2010-11. Due to small sample sizes it is necessary to combine three years of data (2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11) together to form the estimates. Even so, there is considerable uncertainty around these figures due to sampling effects. The estimates are as follows:

Given that these figures include data from at least two years’ worth of surveys that were carried out prior to May 2010, they are primarily a reflection of the situation that the coalition Government have inherited from the last administration.

The Government are taking a series of steps to promote house building, to help councils tackle waiting lists and better manage their housing stock, to get empty homes into productive use, and to build 170,000 affordable homes over the spending review period.

Data on house building can be found on the Department for Communities and Local Government website:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/housebuilding/livetables/

Live table 253 gives house building by tenure, including the local authority tenure, for each local authority district for each financial year since 1998-99.

The Department is fully supportive of the Green Flag Award—the national benchmark for quality public green spaces—and wishes to see it sustained beyond the end of the current contract. Work continues and details of the licence offer will be made as soon as possible in order to ensure that it is still possible to achieve a positive outcome this year without detriment to the scheme.

The Department recently consulted on proposals to amend Part P of the Building Regulations (Electrical safety in dwellings). We published a consultation stage impact assessment on 31 January which considered the costs and benefits of Part P since its introduction in 2005, including Part P's impact on the quality of electrical installation work. The consultation document asked consultees for their views on the matter, and we will use the feedback in developing the final impact assessment.

My Department has recently launched a £30.5 million support programme to help eligible community organisations and social enterprises to take advantage of the Community Right to Challenge and to take on the community ownership and management of assets. £17.5 million of support is also available to those looking to take advantage of the Community Right to Build. These programmes will provide advice, guidance and funding to a range of organisations, some of which may be co-operatives, financial mutuals, employee-owned businesses or credit unions. In order to apply for funding, organisations will need to meet the eligibility criteria for the individual grant schemes.

My Department is also working with Co-operatives UK to establish a Community Shares Unit that will support a range of organisations including co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises to enable the growth of the community shares market as a means of unlocking investment for community projects. We will announce further information about this scheme shortly.

We have also temporarily doubled small business rate relief and given local authorities powers to fund business rates discounts as they see fit.

With the Homes and Communities Agency, we are working with the Confederation of Co-operative Housing and the wider community led sector on their proposal to establish a private investment fund to support the development of homes. In addition, the Homes and Communities Agency has set aside a portion of the Affordable Homes Programme to enable community led organisations to bid for funds to develop affordable housing.

On 10 July, as part of the £30 million Empty Homes Community Fund, I announced that £25.1 million would go to 74 community and voluntary organisations to bring empty homes back into use as affordable housing. A further 20 of these organisations are undergoing due diligence checks to ensure that a further £4.9 million is used for community groups.

Local authorities have powers, under the Housing Act 2004, to assess the risks and hazards in all residential properties using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. If a property is found to contain serious (category 1) hazards, the local authority has a duty to take the most appropriate action. This could range from trying to deal with the problems informally at first to prohibiting the use of the whole or part of the dwelling. This system provides an important safety net, ensuring that homes are safe and decent.

Local authorities also have powers to establish a local licensing system for certain rented properties and to set appropriate standards. We believe this is a proportionate framework, and have no plans to adopt a national scheme.

On various occasions the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles), and I have participated in engagements at which staff of the Mitzvah Day Charitable Trust were present.

My Department has facilitated seven meetings of the Steering Group and 10 meetings of the Reference Group in relation to A Year of Service, and the Mitzvah Day Charitable Trust has attended each of these meetings. There has additionally been regular contact between my Department and the Mitzvah Day Charitable Trust in implementing the programme.

A steering group, comprised of the organisations named below, was formed by DCLG to advise collectively on aspects of the development of A Year of Service.

Business in the Community

The Church of England

The Coexist Foundation

The Faith based Regeneration Network

The Inter Faith Network for the UK

The Mitzvah Day Charitable Trust

The names of individual members of the steering group are not provided as disclosure of this information is likely to breach one or more principles in the Data Protection Act 1998. Organisations were invited to join the steering group because their involvement was seen as important to the project's success. As at 12 July 2012, the steering group had met seven times.

Formal minutes of steering group meetings are not produced; however summary notes are kept and arrangements will be made to place copies of these in the Library of the House.

In addition, a reference group allows the faith communities involved to share best practice and promote the programme within their respective communities.

A steering group, comprised of the organisations named below, was formed by DCLG to advise collectively on aspects of the development of A Year of Service.

Business in the Community

The Church of England

The Coexist Foundation

The Faith based Regeneration Network

The Inter Faith Network for the UK

The Mitzvah Day Charitable Trust

The names of individual members of the steering group are not provided as disclosure of this information is likely to breach one or more principles in the Data Protection Act 1998. Organisations were invited to join the steering group because their involvement was seen as important to the project's success. As at 12 July 2012, the steering group had met seven times.

Formal minutes of steering group meetings are not produced; however summary notes are kept and arrangements will be made to place copies of these in the Library of the House.

In addition, a reference group allows the faith communities involved to share best practice and promote the programme within their respective communities.

A steering group, comprised of the organisations named below, was formed by DCLG to advise collectively on aspects of the development of A Year of Service.

Business in the Community

The Church of England

The Coexist Foundation

The Faith based Regeneration Network

The Inter Faith Network for the UK

The Mitzvah Day Charitable Trust

The names of individual members of the steering group are not provided as disclosure of this information is likely to breach one or more principles in the Data Protection Act 1998. Organisations were invited to join the steering group because their involvement was seen as important to the project's success. As at 12 July 2012, the steering group had met seven times.

Formal minutes of steering group meetings are not produced; however summary notes are kept and arrangements will be made to place copies of these in the Library of the House.

In addition, a reference group allows the faith communities involved to share best practice and promote the programme within their respective communities.

As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of internal ministerial meetings.

Statutory guidance already makes it clear that, in serving a prohibition order under the powers in the Housing Act 2004, local authorities should consider the availability of alternative housing for tenants who may need to be re-housed.

The guidance explains that, although in some cases, provision may have been made as part of the relevant tenancy agreement, in general terms, it is unreasonable to expect a private landlord, who may have a very small portfolio of only one or two properties, to re-house a tenant who has been made homeless as a result of the actions of a local authority.

The guidance—‘Housing Health and Safety Rating System, enforcement guidance’—can be found at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/safetyratingsystem.pdf

We have no plans to review the legislation or the associated guidance.

[holding answer 9 July 2012]: The data source for this is the English Housing Survey (2008-09 to 2010-11), and its predecessor the English House Condition Survey (2005-06 to 2007-08). Due to the nature of sample surveys, figures can only be provided where sample sizes are large enough to make reliable estimates.

(a) Not available at this geographical level.

(b) Not available at this geographical level.

(c) In the West Midlands the numbers of dependent children living in non-decent housing was approximately:

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 50,000, as there is a good deal of uncertainty around these figures due to small sample sizes.

(d) In England the numbers of dependent children living in non-decent housing was approximately:

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100,000.

My Department is providing £1.6 billion of funding over the spending review period to help councils ensure council housing meets the Decent Homes Standard. This is expected to deliver an additional 127,000 decent council homes by 2014-15.

The Department for Communities and Local Government provides funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant to all 326 local authorities in England for the provision of adaptations to homes to allow disabled people to live independently in their own homes. The grant is available to home owners and tenants alike. In 2012-13 the Disabled Facilities Grant funding is £180 million and over the spending review period to 2014-15 DCLG has safeguarded £745 million for the grant.

Part M (access to and use of buildings) of the Building Regulations sets out baseline requirements for access in all new housing and in cases where existing properties are subject to a material change of use to provide homes for sale or rental.

Data on empty homes can be found in the Department for Communities and Local Government live tables on dwelling stock. Live table 615 shows empty homes by local authority district:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/stockincludingvacants/livetables/

[holding answer 3 July 2012]: The Department does not currently collect actual spend data on a regional basis.

Departmental reports up to and including 2009's Annual Report and the Core Financial and Performance Tables for 2009-10 contain information on regional spending by function. These are available at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/about/howwework/corporatereports/reportsaccounts/annualreports/

Further analysis would be at disproportionate cost.

In August 2011, a package of guidance for both landlords and tenants was placed on my Department's website:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/privaterentedhousing/

The guidance covered the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords in the private rented sector, and has recently been updated to take account of the amendments to the tenancy deposit protection legislation which came into effect on 6 April this year. We do not have any plans to make further changes to this guidance at the present time.

The current legislative framework provides strong protections for tenants in the private rented sector, and local authorities have extensive powers to take action against landlords letting poor quality or badly managed properties through the Housing Act 2004. The package of guidance for both landlords and tenants on my Department's website explains what tenants should do if a landlord refuses to repair or properly maintain a property.

Complaints about individual landlords should be directed to the relevant local authority, and my Department does not collect figures on the number of such complaints.

There were 15,698 affordable housing starts on site in 2011-12 delivered in England through the programmes managed by the Homes and Communities Agency.