Concessionary Television Licence (Amendment) (Hansard, 23 March 1998)

§ Mr. John Swinney (North Tayside)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to create greater flexibility in the definition of sheltered housing that is eligible for concessionary television licences, to reflect developments within the structure and management of sheltered housing. I am pleased to have the opportunity to propose this Bill, which is designed to deal with some of the anomalies inherent in existing legislation on granting concessionary television licences to areas of sheltered housing. The issue came to my attention as a result of constituency cases where sheltered housing complexes have found it difficult to secure concessionary television licences.

The sages of the House will have a wry smile at a new boy discovering an issue that he considers a gold mine of anomalies, only to discover that he is not the first to arrive at the treasure. As I looked further into this issue, I discovered that many hon. Members had raised it before. I pay tribute to those hon. Members who have asked questions, led debates in the House and written letters to Ministers on the subject. I noticed from Hansard extracts that you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, were involved in pursuing the previous Government on this matter.

I am grateful to those hon. Members who have pioneered the issue and who have agreed to support my Bill. I am delighted that it has attracted cross-party support, especially from several of the supporters of a recent early-day motion, led by the hon. and learned Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Wallace).

Current regulations stipulate that four qualifying criteria must be satisfied to ensure that a sheltered housing development can successfully apply for a concessionary television licence. First, sheltered housing must form part of a group of at least four dwellings within a common and exclusive boundary, with a concession that up to 25 per cent. of units in a scheme can be properties purchased under the right-to-buy legislation. Secondly, the accommodation must be specially provided for occupation only by disabled people or retired people of pensionable age. Thirdly, the units must be provided or managed by a local authority, a housing association, or a development corporation. Fourthly, the accommodation must have a person—for example, a warden—whose function is to care for the needs of the residents and who lives on site, or works there for at least 30 hours each week.

At one time, those regulations would have been an accurate reflection of the nature and characteristics of sheltered housing—that is, blocks of housing units constructed by local councils and with a resident warden living in a flat within the complex—but the world has moved on, and the regulations appear to relate to a very structured type of sheltered housing complex. Indeed, within the origins of the concessionary television licence scheme was a desire to ensure that sheltered housing benefited from a concession that was available to residential homes. The four criteria I mentioned bear a greater resemblance to the characteristics of a residential home than to sheltered housing as we know it today.

The criteria do not relate to the increasingly varied characteristics of sheltered housing complexes. As the right-to-buy legislation came into force in the 1980s, it 39 became almost impossible for local authorities to justify the construction of new family-style accommodation. Limitations were therefore placed on local authorities, and they increasingly concentrated what housing development work they undertook on the construction of sheltered housing. To their work was added the contribution of a plethora of other housing associations, which came forward with a number of innovative schemes to provide that type of housing.

Some smaller units were constructed as part of a wider housing development. Care for elderly residents is provided not by a resident warden, but by giving residents security through providing them with, for example, an alarm system linked to a communications network. If the elderly resident requires assistance at any time during the day or night, he or she simply rings the alarm, and help is at the end of the telephone. Help can be sent via mobile assistance units targeted at the needs of individual residents.

I visited the headquarters of such a system at Fairlie house in Kirriemuir in my constituency. It is or can be in contact with thousands of pensioners in sheltered housing throughout the county of Angus, and help is on hand all the time. It is an efficient and comforting method of giving security to fiercely independent elderly people. However, that system would lead to a range of sheltered housing complexes in my constituency failing the test of the four criteria, because the complex would not involve a resident warden, despite the fact that the care support and the type of protection available to the elderly residents are not really that different.

Early-day motion 930 raises the problem that concessionary television licences can be withdrawn because of circumstances over which the individual resident has absolutely no control. In the current climate of local authority financial constraints, which inevitably lead to cuts, there is an increasing trend for wardens to be removed from residential accommodation or to work fewer hours.

Such a change in practice, effected by the local authority, will result in one of the four criteria not being fulfilled, and the concessionary television licence being forfeited. In such a case, the individual's circumstances have changed not one iota, but the arrangements of the sheltered housing complex have changed as a result of the local authority's action. There appears to be no flexibility in the system to take account of such difficulties.

40 I am aware that many Members have constituency cases related to the issues raised in the Bill, and I am grateful to a number of them for calling me in the past few days to discuss the cases that they have in mind. One case in my constituency—I have discussed it with the Television Licensing Authority—relates to Priory cottages in the village of Lunanhead in Angus, a sheltered housing complex separated from a larger complex at Carseview terrace. The two units share support services, but are not physically linked, being separated by a few other houses. Carseview terrace receives a concessionary licence, but Priory cottages does not; one complex passes all four criteria, but the other does not.

My Bill aims to modify the strict nature of these criteria and to define a more flexible set of criteria that can be applied, for the benefit of the residents and the organisations that care for them. At the very least, the criteria must be revised to make them more representative of sheltered housing patterns; and the absolute requirement that all four criteria must be satisfied should be modified.

The Government have said that they intend to revisit the concessionary television licence as part of the funding review of the BBC that will be concluded in advance of 2002.I welcome that commitment to a far-ranging review, but I believe that the Government must be encouraged to deal with some of the anomalies so as to make the application of these provisions more practical. If the Bill is not successful, I hope that the Government will look at the substantial proposals that emerge, and consider them as the review gathers pace.

I hope that my Bill will be successful in providing additional support and continuity for elderly and disabled people. The system is not working at present, and it should be simplified to expand assistance to these key groups in society. I commend the Bill to the House.