The first part of the plan addresses the most fundamental housing failure made by successive governments – providing everyone with a safe, warm place to live.
There are no statistics yet on progress towards meeting the decent homes standard – true figures won't be available until the English Housing Condition Surveys for 2002/3 and 2003/4 are compared. There will have to be frenzied activity if councils are to meet the July 2005 deadline for stock options appraisals.
Target Government to sign off stock options appraisals by July 2005
Progress Since last February, 20 councils have submitted their appraisals; 171 are still to do so Source: ODPM
Target 600,000 vulnerable households to benefit from the Defra's Warmfront energy efficiency scheme between 2001 and 2004
Progress So far, 700,000 households have been helped Source: Defra
Target Every local authority to have open spaces that achieve CABE Space's Green Flag standard by 2005
Progress 84 out of 388 local authorities in England have received Green Flag awards, just 17 more than last year Source: Civic Trust
Target Neighbourhood wardens in over 500 communities by 2005
Progress The ODPM gave £91m to set up 245 schemes but start-up funds run out in March. It is not known how many will continue Source: ODPM
Chapter 2: Low demand and abandonment
Collapsing housing markets in areas of the North and Midlands have left 1 million surplus homes, setting off a spiral of decline in some of England's most vulnerable communities. The market renewal pathfinders cover about half of these and a fifth of non-decent social housing, and have 15-20 years to reverse the trend.
As one would expect, there's little progress to be seen one year into the programme but strategies have been submitted and planning is under way.
Target By 2005, strategic action plans in place for all pathfinders. Large-scale clearance, refurbishment and new-build work under way
Progress Manchester Salford, Oldham Rochdale, Liverpool and Newcastle Gateshead have submitted plans. The rest are due by March this year and will start spending in April – apart from troubled Humberside; its strategy isn't due until September
Target Help councils tackle private housing. From June 2003 the government to introduce pilot projects to tackle problems by joining up existing powers on housing, environmental health and nuisance
Progress Last year, five pilots were set up in Bolton, Hartlepool, Stoke on Trent, East Lancashire and West Yorkshire Source: ODPM
Target A "housing demand assessment guidance tool", to enable subregions to understand housing markets better, to be published in autumn 2003
Progress The ODPM promises the tool will come "very soon"
Chapter 3: Step change in supply
In England, there's a shortfall of 35,000 new homes each year. The plan aims to prepare the ground for a dramatic increase in the pace of building, making full use of existing stock and speeding up the planning process. Since the plan was published, overall housebuilding has seen a slight increase, but the picture for social housing is actually worse.
Meanwhile, targets to get families out of B&Bs are progressing, but homelessness figures released in December were the highest since 1997. There is clearly a long way to go.
Progress The latest figures are for July-September 2003, when work began on 40,000 homes in England. This is a 2% rise from the 39,400 started in the equivalent period of 2002. In the three months to September 2003, 34,000 dwellings were completed, a 4% rise from the 32,800 completed in the same period of 2002. But the number of social homes built in 2002/3 fell to 16,752 from 17,692 in 2001/2 Source: ODPM
Progress District planning authorities made 167,000 planning decisions in the third quarter of 2003, 10% higher than the previous year, and the highest number decided in the July-to-September quarter since 1988 Source: ODPM
Target Starter Home Initiative to help 10,000 key workers into homeownership between 2001/2 and 2003/4
Progress By the end of December 2003, more than 6300 key workers had bought their first homes under the SHI. Because of slow takeup, the government was forced to raise the funding for which people could apply Source: ODPM
Target By 2005, a major programme of affordable homes for low-cost rent or homeownership. Precise numbers to depend on advice from regions
Progress New key-worker programme to start on 1 April. Funding has been allocated to regional housing boards, but details on how resources will be divided have not been finalised Source: ODPM
Target Better use of empty properties
Progress Figures for 1 April 2003 show there were 718,720 properties vacant for six months or more in England, 3% of the total, an improvement of 11,000 homes on the previous year Source: Empty Homes Agency
Target Sustaining the reduction in rough sleeping at within a third of 1998 levels (in other words, at fewer than 616 rough sleepers in England)
Progress In 2002, there were 596 rough sleepers recorded in England. The last published figures, in September 2003, showed that this had fallen to 504 Source: ODPM
Target No homeless families with children in B&B accommodation (except in emergencies) by the end of March 2004
Progress In the first quarter of 2003, 4800 families with children had been in B&Bs for longer than six weeks. The latest figures, for July to September 2003, showed this had fallen to 3190. Running totals at the end of December 2003 found 62% of local authorities had no families with children in B&Bs (except in emergencies), 22% had fewer than five, 9% had between five and 10 and 7% had 10 or more Source: ODPM
Chapter 4: Land, countryside and rural communities
This part of the plan is intended to mitigate possible damage to the countryside from the full-on building onslaught the government is hoping for. It could be dragging its feet a little on its brownfield targets and although it appears to be meeting its rural housing commitments, those struggling to meet demand in the countryside still say the bar was set too low.
Target By 2005, 1500 hectares of brownfield land to be restored and managed as public green space through the Land Restoration Trust. Through regional development agencies and regeneration quango English Partnerships, the government will remediate brownfield land at a rate of more than 1400 hectares a year
Progress The Land Restoration Trust will be set up very shortly. It is currently negotiating for 500 ha of land, which are expected to be taken into the trust within six months. A further 1000 ha have been identified and are expected to be taken in within 18 months. The ODPM claims that between EP and the regional development agencies, "more than 1400 ha" is being remediated Source: English Partnerships
Target More than 5000 affordable homes to be provided in small settlements between 2003/4 and 2005/6
Progress The target was broken down into two tranches, 1600 homes for 2003/4 and 3500 for 2004/5. By the end of December 2003, 1000 had been built. ODPM says it is on schedule Source: ODPM
Target To stop land being wasted, the government to call in planning applications developing larger new housing sites at below 30 dwellings per hectare in high demand areas
Progress ODPM has been notified of three such projects. So far, one has been called in Source: ODPM
Chapter 5: Sustainable growth
Deputy prime minister John Prescott wants to create four new sustainable communities in the South-east. The government has allocated £600m to the growth areas, and plans are being worked up for a number of high-profile solutions. For example, English Partnerships is to build 10,000 homes in the Barking area of London, in partnership with housebuilder Bellway.
Target In May 2003, a Cabinet committee report was scheduled to set out how much development the government wants to see in the Gateway, and how much it is prepared to support financially. By 2005, visible progress is to be seen
Progress The report finally surfaced in August, with news of £330m funding. There's still no decision on Crossrail, though. Despite promises of news in January, the Department of Transport can't give a firm date. There may be development by 2005, but without transport links it may not be the type the deputy prime minister had envisioned
Chapter 6: Reforming for delivery
Planning reforms, financial freedoms, grant to developers, tariffs instead of section 106 agreements, no more local authority social housing grant ... The ODPM gave the impression that nothing was sacred in its zeal to deliver a 'step change' in affordable housing. All eyes are on the Planning Bill that is currently before parliament, but the softer targets on skills are harder to measure – and possibly to deliver.
Target By July 2003, the ODPM was to develop a comprehensive skills strategy for sustainable communities, including setting up regional Centres of Excellence. The first centre was due to be launched in 2003
Progress Independent review to be done into the professional skills needed to deliver sustainable communities. It's due in February and will feed into the ODPM's strategy. No centres of excellence yet
Target Regional housing boards to be set up and regional housing strategies to be put in place by 2005
Progress Boards set up. Initial strategies signed off by ODPM in September; final versions due in spring 2005 (deadline put back a year)
Target By 2005, better resourced local authorities with more planners to manage the development process more effectively
Progress A hard one to measure, but a draft report from the Royal Town Planning Institute does not provide much hope. It says recruiting junior planners is a significant problem, application numbers are declining and local authorities are the worst affected Source: RTPI
Target In 2006/7, all local planning authorities to meet planning application handling targets, including decisions on 60% of major planning applications within 13 weeks
Progress In September 2003, the average figure was 52%. For planning applications in general, figures for July to September showed improvements on January to March: 73% were decided in eight weeks, up from 67%, and 88% were decided in 13 weeks, up from 83% Source: ODPM
Source
Housing Today
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