§ 5. Mr. Matherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment on which areas of housing expenditure the cuts of £50 million in subsidies and £65 million in capital expenditure will fall.
§ The Minister for Housing and Construction (Mr. Reginald Freeson)The £65 million cut in housing subsidies announced in the April Budget has been restored as part of the counter-inflation policy announced in Cmnd 6151. I have not yet decided the capital expenditure programmes for 1976–77.
§ Mr. MatherHow does the Minister explain the increase of subsidies of some £80 million under the Remuneration, Charges and Grants Act to hold down housing rents? Does not that mean that, far from there being a cut, there is an increase of £30 million? How will the hon. Gentleman explain that to those who are expecting home loans and who are now suffering from a cut of £100 million and half of whom will be disappointed?
§ Mr. FreesonThe latter point does not relate to the first. The £80 million is the total national figure. The figure for subsidies in England and Wales is £65 million, which is not an increase. It maintains the figure that was in this year's Estimates. It was to have been cut in the figures for 1976 but will now be retained.
§ Mr. HefferWill my hon. Friend state once again that there is no reason why local authorities in areas requiring local authority housing should hold up the local authority programme and that they can get on with the job and build the houses required? In this matter the Government are doing a first-class job.
§ Mr. FreesonI thank my hon. Friend. I am happy to confirm that that is Government policy. We have introduced a whole series of measures during the past 18 months to enable the house-building programme to improve, and it has done so by about one-third during that time. We wish to see local authorities, particularly in stress areas, such as the one I know my hon. Friend represents, go ahead with a much bigger building programme than there has been over a number of years in the recent past.