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<p>The last Administration failed to meet its Decent Homes target. It pledged in 2000
that: “We... are committed to ensuring that all social housing is of a decent standard
within 10 years” (DETR, <em>Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All: The Housing
Green Paper</em>, April 2000, p.11). But 16 per cent of local authority homes were
not decent by 2010.</p><p>That last Government also cut the Decent Homes programme
by £150 million in July 2009, cannibalising the housing programme to pay for other
policies. I also observe the last Prime Minister planned to cut back housing investment,
remarking before the general election: “Housing is essentially a private sector activity.
Let's be honest about this... I don't see a need for us to continue with such a big
renovation programme” (<em>BBC Newsnight</em>, 30 April 2010).</p><p>However, the
Coalition Government is investing £2.3 billion from 2011 to 2016 to improve the quality
of existing social housing through the Decent Homes programme and large-scale voluntary
transfer gap funding The funding is for clearing the backlog, and therefore is less
than under the last Administration – as by intention, there should be an increasingly
smaller number of homes to pay to refurbish.</p><p>The table below shows spending
since 2005.</p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td><p>£ million</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2004-05</p></td><td><p>£578</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2005-06</p></td><td><p>£864</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2006-07</p></td><td><p>£814</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2007-08</p></td><td><p>£1,005</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008-09</p></td><td><p>£1,017</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009-10</p></td><td><p>£1,079</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>£756</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>£494</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>£563</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>£631</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15</p></td><td><p>est.
£532</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>NB. The figure for 14-15 contains £15 million
funding for South Tyneside which was brought forward from the 2015-16 allocation.</p><p>The
number of non-decent local authority dwellings across England has fallen from 292,000
in 1 April 2010 to 146,000 in April 2014, with a forecast of a further fall to 113,000
by April 2015. This shows clear progress in refurbishing these homes.</p><p> </p><p>
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