Housing Corporation (Hansard, 4 February 1981)

§ 7. Mr. Bowden
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment when next he expects to meet the chairman of the Housing Corporation to discuss the level of grants to housing associations for 1981–82.

§ Mr. Stanley
My right hon. Friend announced on 15 December that the Housing Corporation would receive £491 million in 1981–82 for distribution to housing associations. I expect to receive the Housing Corporation's formal programme for approval very shortly and will be discussing it with the corporation's chairman.

§ Mr. Bowden
Will the Minister confirm that the Secretary of State has undertaken to make additional funds available for the frail elderly? On the next occasion that he meets the chairman of the corporation, will he tell him how much extra money will be available to ensure that this group and the disabled get special help?

§ Mr. Stanley
I think that my hon. Friend is referring to the specific increased allocation of £12 million for 1981–82, which is to be spent on the provision of additonal hostel accommodation by the Housing Corporation. Detailed decisions on which schemes will be covered by that allocation of £12 million are for the Housing Corporation, but I expect that some of it will be devoted to schemes for the elderly.

§ Mr. James A. Dunn
Will the Minister make a statement very soon about his intention to allocate the £12 million for the housing of the single homeless, because some housing associations have difficulty in understanding his proposals in that regard?

§ Mr. Stanley
As I have said to my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Bowden), the detailed allocation of the £12 million for special needs hostels will be a matter for the Housing Corporation. As I have also said in reply to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Ross), I assure the House that that sum will not be concentrated solely on London. There will be a regional distribution, and that will be a matter for the Housing Corporation.

§ Mr. Durant
Will my hon. Friend discuss with the chairman of the Housing Corporation the discrepancy between the numbers of acquisitions and completions by the Housing Corporation? Will he further discuss whether it is necessary to have the double scrutiny that takes place now between the DOE and the Housing Corporation?

§ Mr. Stanley
There is a substantial discrepancy between the numbers of properties acquired and their completion. That discrepancy has continued over many years. The Housing Corporation is in the process of examining whether schemes which have been acquired and approved to be acquired previously are likely to go ahead in the near future and whether there is any scope for reducing the number of schemes in the pipeline in that way.
From 1 April this year we shall be introducing a new system of single scrutiny exclusively by the Housing Corporation for housing association projects. I think that will substantially improve progress with housing association projects.

§ Mr. Pavitt
When discussing these matters with the chairman of the Housing Corporation, will the Minister place some emphasis on the co-operative form of housing association and the way in which development there has been almost arrested in the last year? At the same time, will he make a statement about his staircase policy and how that fits into the management of a housing association by the tenants?

§ Mr. Stanley
The hon. Gentleman will be aware that there is a variety of co-operative forms of housing associations. Neither the Housing Corporation nor the Department makes any distinction between the approval of schemes of normally constituted housing associations and co-operative housing associations. They are treated on the same basis.