§ 9. Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was, approximately, the average net council rent at the latest available date and in May 1979; and what was the approximate annual council house subsidy for 1979–80 and 1982–83.
§ Sir George YoungPreliminary estimates indicate that the average unrebated rent of local authority dwellings in England and Wales, net of rates and other charges collected with rent, stood at approximately £13.54 per week at the end of April this year. In April 1979, it stood at £6.40.
In 1979–80 subsidies to English council house tenants—including Exchequer subsidy, voluntary rate fund contributions, and rent rebates—totalled £1,776 million, or some £360 per dwelling. I am not yet in a position to forecast the likely total for 1982–83.
§ Mr. AllaunDoes that not show that the Government do not give a damn about how one-third of families have to live? Is it not grossly unfair that we should give council tenants less than mortgagors, who get a 30 per cent. subsidy? Would not the introduction of Labour's rate-free scheme lessen the injustice?
§ Sir George YoungIt shows no such thing. The nonsense was the decline in rent levels under Labour, when people who could be expected to pay more for their housing were indiscriminately subsidised, and there was a sensational cut in the housing investment programme to pay for it—a cut that we have now begun to reverse.
On the second part of the hon. Gentleman's question, the total subsidy per tenant in the current year is estimated at about £287 per annum compared with a total subsidy per owner-occupier of about £201 per annum.
§ Mr. LathamAre we not making progress along the lines laid down in the 1978 Labour Government White Paper on public expenditure in which the right hon. Member for Heywood and Royton (Mr. Barnett) made it clear that the proportion of income paid by council tenants should be increased?
§ Sir George YoungIf the Labour Government had adopted the policies enunciated by their own Treasury Minister, there would have been no need for the very large increases that we have had to introduce.
§ Mr. Greville JannerDoes the Minister appreciate that the real problem is that, because local authorities are being starved of funds for their housing programmes and forced to increase rents against their will, they cannot build the houses so desperately needed by people, such as those on the growing waiting list in the city of Leicester?
§ Sir George YoungIf local authorities spend the money allocated to them for the current year, there should be a cash increase of about 30 per cent. over last year's spending—the first increase of that magnitude in about seven years.