HC Deb 21 April 1975 vol 890 cc1188-9

Lords Amendment: No. 9. after Clause 9, in page 8, line 6, at end insert new Clause C: C. The fact that a housing association is a society registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 and that its rules restrict membership to persons who are tenants or prospective tenants of the association and preclude the grant or assignation of tenancies to persons other than members shall not render it ineligible for housing association grant under section 29 of the Housing Act 1974 or for revenue deficit grant under section 32 of that Act.

Mr. Milian

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

This is another new clause which deals with housing associations. The basic provisions about housing associations being paid grant were set out in Sections 29 and 32 of the Housing Act 1974. These provisions as they were drafted prevent grants from being paid to cooperative housing associations which have full mutuality between tenants and members. In other words, their rules are restricted to members who are tenants or prospective tenants of the association. We are removing these exclusions because we want to encourage these experiments in co-operative housing associations.

This is rather different from the previous matter which was dealing with tenants of local authority housing. We are here dealing with co-operative housing associations where the tenants would provide their own housing but the housing would then be let to members of the association. It is a particular kind of housing association which previously has been excluded, and the purpose of the new clause is to bring it within the grant provisions of the 1974 Act.

Question put and agreed to. [Special Entry.]

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