Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many new housing completions have occurred since 2010; and what is the estimated increase in the UK's population during that period.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Over 893,000 additional homes have been delivered in England since April 2010.Full information including a breakdown by new build, conversion, change of use and other changes is available (attached) at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-net-supply-of-housing
Figures show an estimated increase of 2.1438 million in the population of England between mid-2010 and mid-2015. Full information, including historical population estimates for the UK and England, is published by the Office for National Statistics, and available (attached) at the following link:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the conclusion by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) that there was no consistent evidence that the Troubled Families Programme had any significant or systematic impact on those families which took part in the programme, what evidence they have for the statement by the Communities Minister, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, on 17 October that "this programme has transformed the lives of thousands of families"; and what is their response to the NIESR report <i>National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme</i>.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The NIESR Impact Study was just one of 6 reports comprising the independent evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme. The evaluation found that the programme had many positive achievements. These include:
Families feeling more confident and optimistic about being able to cope in the future
Joining up local services for families by encouraging a single keyworker approach to work with the whole family on all of its problems
Raising the quality and capacity of local data systems
Better joint working with partners such as Jobcentre Plus
The data shows that nearly 120,000 of the families on this programme saw their lives improve – more children attending school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour significantly cut and, in more than 18,000 families, an adult holding down a job. The evaluation does not dispute this fact.
Unsurprisingly, the ambitious and innovative impact study which used national administrative datasets to track changes in families circumstances over comparatively short time periods, was unable to specifically attribute positive outcomes achieved in employment, youth crime or school attendance to the Troubled Families Programme.
This was because at that time the level of change achieved was not significantly different from that seen in a group of families not on the programme with whom comparisons were made. This is not the same, however, as saying that the evaluation shows family outcomes did not improve, as some have wrongly inferred.
Of course, we will continue to review all evidence of how the programme is working, to learn from it and see if there's more we can do to help families facing such multiple problems. In fact, we have already adapted the new programme in a number of ways, including extending the length of time over which family outcomes will be tracked – from 12 months to 5 years.