Home Improvements (Hansard, 10 May 1982)

§ Baroness Lane-Fox
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Lord Bellwin)
My Lords, this is a wide-ranging Question. The range of home improvement grants was extended and revised in the Housing Act 1980, and the limit of grant payable for the rehabilitation of houses in bad condition was raised to a more realistic level. The Government have also promoted initiatives in low-cost home ownership, notably the homesteading and improvement-for-sale schemes. My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced further short-term measures in the Budget through local authorities amounting to £79.3 million.

§ Baroness Lane-Fox
My Lords, following that very positively encouraging reply, may I ask my noble friend the Minister to say how many local authorities are making improvement grants to first-time buyers who are willing to undertake homesteading?

§ Lord Bellwin
My Lords, I understand that so far 89 local authorities in England have sold or intend to sell unimproved houses for improvement by the purchaser. During the calendar year 1981, 1,455 dwellings were sold. I would expect all the local authorities involved to be offering purchasers improvement grants for renovating the houses they buy. Furthermore, 10 of those authorities sold the properties with the aid of a local authority mortgage with agreement from my right honourable friend to waive interest payments on the mortgage for a period as an even greater incentive to buy and improve.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, in relation to elderly owner-occupiers, can the noble Lord say whether his department is studying the very important experiments carried out recently in Rhondda and Tyneside, and elsewhere, by voluntary bodies; and would he agree that the level of bureaucratic complexity combined with personal poverty means that many elderly owner-occupiers are not getting the help they need with repairs, insulation and improvement?

§ Lord Bellwin
My Lords, I would hope that the noble Lord would bring to my notice any cases of the kind that he describes, so that one can look at them carefully and see whether the procedures are too tortuous, or whatever, with a view to improving them. As to the two schemes that he mentioned, I had heard of them. It will be interesting to know more of what they bring forth as time goes on.

§ Lord Mowbray and Stourton
My Lords, bearing in mind the enormous cost of new housing and also of 6 improving old housing stock, is there not possibly a case for increasing the basic sum of money on which the grant for improvement can be given?

§ Lord Bellwin
My Lords, it depends in each case on what the figures show. In fact, the grants now go up to 90 per cent., which is very significant indeed; and the Government are absolutely determined to do all they can to improve this aspect of housing, within which we feel there is such great opportunity.

§ Lord Northfield
My Lords, can the noble Lord say what is the present position on insulation grants? Are they being taken up; and could not a lot more propaganda be carried out to encourage people to insulate their houses? This is one improvement which is very much in the national interest and is badly needed for the millions of houses constructed between the two wars.

§ Lord Bellwin
My Lords, the noble Lord is absolutely right, and we are very keen indeed. That is why we have allocated much larger funds than ever before for insulation grants. It may well be, as the noble Lord says, that even greater publicity ought to be brought to bear on this. He will know that already there is much more than ever before, but, nevertheless, the underlying point of his question is very valid. We must look all the time to see that we are bringing this grant to the notice of people.

§ Baroness Lane-Fox
My Lords, may I ask my noble friend the Minister to return to his answer to my supplementary question and tell us how many local authorities are improving properties for sale to first-time buyers?

§ Lord Bellwin
My Lords, the improvement-for-sale scheme under the Act came into effect in November 1980. I understand that since then approximately 79 local authorities have undertaken or are intending to undertake improvement-for-sale. Authorities do not have to offer dwellings to first-time buyers, but the sale price of such dwellings is relatively low, they are an attractive proposition for such purchasers and some local authorities give first-time buyers priority when offering such dwellings for sale.