Vol. 503 No. 6
49 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the number of new housing starts which have taken place as a result of the serviced land initiative; the local authorities which have acted on the measure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10734/99]
The serviced land initiative is one of a number of measures aimed at bringing forward serviced land for housing as rapidly as possible. Under the initiative, 47 local authorities, including 15 urban district councils, were allocated funding for approved schemes involving 100,000 sites. Details of all the schemes approved are set out in the reply to Questions Nos. 130 and 132 of 24 March 1999. I should say that all qualifying schemes in the major urban areas, and their transport catchments, submitted to the Department were approved. All of the local authorities concerned have acted on the measure and considering the necessary lead-in times progress to date has been reasonably satisfactory. Local authorities have been asked to progress the schemes as a priority.
It is not possible, from the returns submitted by local authorities, to indicate the actual number of new house starts which can be directly related to the initiative but, based on the most recent local authority returns, schemes either completed or already at construction are expected to produce some 5,000 sites. In addition, schemes which are at an advanced planning stage account for a further 40,000 sites. In general, the majority of these schemes should reach construction this year. A further indication of the positive impact of the measures is the fact that house completions are up 20 per cent in the first ten weeks of 1999 compared to the same period last year. The rate at which new houses will start on lands serviced under the initiative depends not only on the construction of the schemes themselves but on factors such as progress by developers in the submission of planning applications, and commencing building.
Of course, serviced land initiative schemes are an addition to the schemes in the Department's main water and sewerage services investment programme, which is expanding water services infrastructure generally. This year's capital provision of £275 million represents an increase of 50 per cent on expenditure in 1998, and is more than double the expenditure on these services in 1996.
