HC Deb 26 March 1946 vol 421 cc225-7

Resolution reported: That for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to make fresh arrangements for the making of contributions, grants and loans in connection with the provision of housing accommodation; to provide for matters subordinate to that purpose; to amend the enactments which relate to the making of contributions in respect of housing accommodation; to amend the law relating to the housing accounts of local authorities; and to facilitate the provision of housing accommodation in the Isles of Scilly, it is expedient— A. To authorise, subject to the limitation hereinafter mentioned, the payment out of moneys provided by Parlament of any expenses of the Minister of Health in making to a local authority in respect of each new house provided by the authority, not more than sixty annual contributions, each of them not to exceed:—

  1. (1) sixteen pounds ten shillings; or
  2. (2) in the case of a house provided for the agricultural population, or a house provided by or in the exercise of the powers of the council of a county district which fulfils the conditions laid down by the said Act of the present Session with reference both to the rents obtainable from houses in the district and to the financial resources of the district, twenty-five pounds ten shillings, or
  3. (3) in the case of a house on a site (that is to say, a site as determined in accordance with the said Act of the present Session) the cost of which as developed exceeds fifteen hundred pounds per acre, a sum rising from twenty-eight pounds ten shillings where that cost is not more than four thousand pounds to thirty-five pounds five shillings where that cost is not more than twelve thousand pounds, and then increasing by one pound ten shillings for each additional two thousand pounds or part thereof; or
  4. (4) in the case of a flat in a block of flats which, as to the whole or any part thereof, is at least four storeys high and which has had a lift installed therein, a sum determined in accordance with the last preceding paragraph plus seven pounds;
each of the said contributions to be capable of being increased—
  1. (a) in the case of a house the cost of which is increased by expenses attributable to the acquisition of rights of support, or otherwise attributable to measures taken for securing protection against the consequences of a subsidence of the site, by not more than two pounds;
  2. (b) if the authority by whom or in the exercise of whose powers the house is provided fulfils the conditions laid down in the said Act with reference to the high level of 226 the general rate and the financial burden of the authority in respect of housing, by not more than one-half of the contribution which the authority would otherwise be liable to make under the said Act in respect of the house.
The said limitation is that no such contribution shall be payable in respect of any such house unless the house has been approved by the Minister for the purposes of the said Act of the present Session or has, on or after the third day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-four, been approved by the Minister for the purposes of the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1938, or, if not so approved, is a house completed after the end of December, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine. B. To authorise the payment out of moneys provided by Parliament of any expenses of the Minister in making, in respect of any house provided by a housing association otherwise than in pursuance of arrangements made under Section ninety-four of the Housing Act, 1936, being a house for the construction of which building operations began between the end of December, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and the passing of the said Act of the present Session?—
  1. (a) the same contributions as would in the opinion of the Minister have been payable by him if the house had been provided by the local authority of the area; and
  2. (b) in the case of a house likely to cause loss to the association, such additional annual contributions as may be provided by the said Act of the present Session.
 C. To authorise the payment out of moneys provided by Parliament of any expenses of the Minister attributable to any provisions of the said Act of the present Session—
  1. (1) relating to the provision of housing accommodation in government war buildings;
  2. (2) increasing to fifteen pounds the contributions which may be paid by the Minister in respect of a house under Section three of the said Act of 1938, and varying the conditions with which arrangements under that Section are required to comply;
  3. (3) empowering the Minister to make contributions in respect of houses which have become vested in local authorities;
  4. (4) providing for grants by the Minister in respect of houses constructed otherwise than by traditional methods;
  5. (5) providing for grants by the Minister to housing associations established in pursuance of arrangements made by the Minister; and
  6. (6) providing for the making of contributions by the Minister in respect of housing accommodation in the Isles of Scilly.
 D. To authorise the issue of money out of the Consolidated Fund for the purpose of enabling the Minister to make loans to housing associations, so, however, that the total amount so issued, less any sums which have been repaid, shall not at any time exceed fifteen million pounds, and to extend the purposes for which advances may be made out to the said Fund under Section one of the Building Materials and Housing Act, 1945. E. To authorise the Treasury, in order to provide money to be issued out of the Consolidated Fund for the purpose of enabling the Minister to make such loans as aforesaid, to raise money in any manner in which they are authorised to raise money under the National Loans Act, 1939, and for that purpose to create and issue securities which shall be deemed for all purposes to have been created and issued under that Act. F. To authorise the payment into the Exchequer of all sums received by the Minister under the said Act of the present Session and any sums received by the Minister by way of interest on or repayment of any loan made out of money issued to him by the Treasury under the said Act and to provide that any sums received by the Minister by way of interest on or repayment of any such loan and paid into the Exchequer shall he issued out of the Consolidated Fund at such times as the Treasury may direct and be applied, in so far as they represent principal, in redemption, or repayment of debt, and, in so far as they represent interest, in the payment of interest which would otherwise be payable out of the permanent annual charge for the National Debt. In this Resolution the expression "house" includes any part of a building, being a part which is occupied or intended to be occupied as a separate dwelling, and, in particular, includes a flat.