Oral Answers to Questions

Alison Seabeck Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

1. What assessment he has made of the incidence of damp in social housing.

[Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of the incidence of damp in social housing.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Stephen Williams)]

The latest data that we have from the English housing survey, from 2011-12, indicate that 6.9% of local authority homes and 3.7% of housing association homes had some problem with damp in that year. As a consequence of the 2011-15 spending review, the coalition is investing £2.1 billion to bring social homes up to the decent homes standard.

[Alison Seabeck]

I draw the House’s attention to my interests as usual.

It is slightly disappointing that the Minister did not refer to a recent survey which indicated that social housing providers—along with Members of Parliament, incidentally—are receiving more and more complaints from people who have damp in their properties because they cannot afford to heat them. As the Minister will know, condensation and damp are a real health problem. What is he doing to ensure that his colleagues in the Department of Energy and Climate Change understand the implications for those families, and do something about them by dealing proactively with energy prices?

[Stephen Williams]

Presumably the hon. Lady is referring to a survey of 30 social landlords conducted by the Direct Works Forum, which represents those who carry out repair work of this kind. Given that there are 336 local housing authorities, and many hundreds more housing associations, we shall have to wait and see whether that survey is representative.

Throughout the Government, we understand that fuel poverty is an issue. Both my Department and the Department of Energy and Climate Change are doing their best to drive down household energy costs, and we recently announced that we would reduce energy costs by £50 per household.