§ 1. Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the extent of recent failures by certain local authorities to start new house building and improvement and on the reasons for this failure.
§ The Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Peter Shore)The latest housing investment programmes show that local authorities generally propose to shift their emphasis from new building to improvement. I am, however, concerned that new building programmes have been reduced below the level for which we have allocated resources, but a compensating expansion of improvement programmes has not yet taken place, and that in some areas the cut-back in new house building seems to be attributable to political dogma rather than assessment of need for rented accommodation.
§ Mr. AllaunWill the Secretary of State accept that some local authorities, now Conservative controlled, are deliberately axing their house building and improvement programmes, despite desperate need by thousands of families, because of hostility towards council housing and council tenants? Apart from reallocating their grants to other councils, will the Secretary of State consider taking additional steps to end this evil?
§ Mr. ShoreI accept that some local authorities—I am afraid that they are Conservative local authorities—display hostility to building for rent where there 934 is undoubtedly a need. I deplore that, as do all my right hon. and hon. Friends.
As for taking remedial action if one can, there are limits, as my hon. Friend understands. The ultimate deterrent and corrective lie in the hands of the local electorate. I hope, therefore, that when the next local elections take place there will be a number of changes. But in so far as I can help with, for example, the Housing Corporation and its use of its funds, of course I am prepared to do so.
§ Mr. Michael MorrisWill the Secretary of State stop bleating about local authorities, which are much better able to assess the need on the ground than he is, and for once come to this House with some concrete proposals and some real money to put some muscle into the improvement programme?
§ Mr. ShoreThe hon. Gentleman has not studied the matter in the way that I would have expected him to do. However, under the new block system of allocation of money to local authorities there is now a great opportunity, which they have never had before, for them to put more resources into local authority housing improvements. It is a far greater opportunity than they have previously enjoyed.
§ Mr. CrawshawLeaving party dogma aside, is my right hon. Friend aware that the housing situation in the inner cities will be solved only when the building of each house will not add to the rates? If my right hon. Friend is concerned, as I believe he is, to solve the problems of the inner city areas, does he appreciate that generous though the grants have been, rates are a political issue when it comes to an election, and that parties will not build houses if to do so will increase rates prior to an election?
§ Mr. ShoreWe do our best, as my hon. Friend has acknowledged, to make reasonably generous financial provisions to assist local authorties to build new houses in the areas of need. In the legislative proposals which I hope to introduce this Session I shall be making certain changes in the subsidy system, which will probably have the effect of helping to concentrate resources even more on the areas where major house building is 935 still needed. There is a residual cost, of course, to the rates.
My hon. Friend comes from an area where, for reasons of local judgment, a very small—indeed, I think, a nil—contribution is being made from the rates. That is quite exceptional, in my experience, in the inner cities as a whole, where local authorties make a contribution and are pleased to do so.
§ Mr. HeseltineDoes the Secretary of State realise that trying to pretend that this is a party political matter does the housing case a considerable disservice? Will he recognise that the facts clearly reveal that the Labour-controlled council in Sheffield has cut the figure from 2,000 to 800, that the Labour-controlled authority in Manchester is planning a reduction from 1,900 to 1,200, that in Nottingham, where under Conservative control there have been reductions in council house building, there has been a tripling of the sale of houses on land made available by the local authority, and that this is a better deal for all the people involved, ratepayers and home owners included?
§ Mr. ShoreWhatever else has happened between the last Session and this, there has been no diminution of the hon. Gentleman's sheer gall. No Conservative Member has played a more conspicuous part in urging Conservative-controlled local authorities that they should not build local authority houses. He has made this a personal crusade. He is almost making new house building an anti-Conservative or un-Conservative activity. I hope that he will not succeed.