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Lords Amendment: No. 23, in page 14, line 6, at end insert:
(2A) Subject to sub-paragraph (2B) below, the Secretary of State shall have power to determine that the whole or any part of any rent under a lease payable by a local authority or a new town corporation and debited to their Housing Revenue Account or housing account shall be treated for the purposes of this paragraph as reckonable expenditure attributable to admissible capital costs.
(2B) The Secretary of State may not make a determination under sub-paragraph (2A) above in respect of rent under a lease if a whole year's rent under it was debited to the Housing Revenue Account or housing account for a year previous to the year 1975–76.
§ Mr. KaufmanI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
The effect of this amendment is to give the Secretary of State power to subsidise rent as part of the new capital costs element of housing subsidy.
The power does not apply to rent under a lease if a whole year's rent under that 236 lease was debited to the housing revenue account or housing account before the year 1975–76. Such rent attracts the basic element of housing subsidy.
Most land acquired for housing purposes is freehold, but there are occasionally circumstances in which land may be acquired for long-term use under a long lease. It is also sometimes convenient for a local authority to acquire property on a short lease—for example, short-life property to help deal with homelessness. Premiums paid on a grant assignment of a lease of such property attract the new capital costs element of housing subsidy. It is therefore right that rent should also do so.
§ Question nut and agreed to. [Special Entry.]
§ Subsequent Lords amendments agreed to.
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Lords Amendment: No. 33, in page 19, line 25, leave out from "The" to end of line 28 and insert:
regulations may authorise a local authority or new town corporation to consult, in connection with the determination of any such question as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (3) above, the president of the panel drawn up under Schedule 5 to the Rent Act 1968 (panels for the constitution of rent assessment committees) for any area in which there is situated a dwelling to which the determination will relate.
( ) The regulations may also—
§ Mr. FreesonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this we may take Lords Amendment No. 39, in page 28, line 19, at end insert:
. The following paragraph shall be added after paragraph 9 of Schedule 5 to that Act (rent assessment committees):—10. Any reference to remuneration, salaries or allowances in the foregoing provisions of this Schedule includes a reference to remuneration or, as the case may be, salaries or allowances, in respect of functions conferred by regulations under paragraph 15 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Rents and 237 Subsidies Act 1975; and the reference to expenses in paragraph 9(c) above includes a reference to expenses incurred in the discharge of such functions."
§ Mr. FreesonI beg to move, That the House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
§ Mr. Michael LathamWill the Minister tell us what the amendment means?
§ Question put and agreed to. [Special Entry.]
§ Subsequent Lords amendment agreed to.