HL Deb 15 May 1984 vol 451 cc1277-8

2.55 p.m.

Baroness Fisher of Rednal

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there has been any progress on the problem of growing disrepair revealed by the English House Condition Survey.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, unprecedented efforts have been made in the field of housing improvement and repair during the last three years. Repairs grants have been made much more widely available and have been given in large numbers. Expenditure on improvement and repairs grants has been running at record levels.

Baroness Fisher of Rednal

My Lords, can we expect any further resources from either urban programmes or housing improvement programmes to extend the technique of enveloping, which involves the complete restoration of private properties in urban areas? It is a technique pioneered in Birmingham which has done such a great deal to overcome the urban decay in central areas of large cities.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, like my noble friend the Leader of the House, 1 find it nice to have a fan on the Opposition Benches. I, too, am an extremely keen supporter of the envelope schemes to which the noble Baroness has referred. On the other part of her question, in 1984–85 grants will again be financed from within individual authorities' housing improvement programme allocations and authorities' housing investment needs have been taken into account in determining those allocations.

Lord Graham of Edmonton

My Lords, the Question refers to "growing disrepair". Can the Minister tell the House what steps are taken by the Government to ascertain and to monitor the effect on a council's ability to maintain its properties, arising from the cut-backs in rate support grant and also the allocations to councils in the housing investment programmes?

Lord Skelmersdale

Yes, my Lords, of course we monitor the condition of the housing stock of local authorities. We take account of those sums of money that they themselves feel they will require in setting the grant-related expenditure and the HIP programmes to which I have referred.

Baroness Fisher of Rednal

My Lords, will the noble Lord really accept that there have been serious cutbacks in the housing programmes and that it is not the simple answers that he is giving us this afternoon that are being felt in those areas that are suffering the greatest deprivation, where people are still living in very bad slum properties? Will the Government really once again consider the investment policy, so that people living in these bad conditions can in future have opportunities for perhaps a much more contented life?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, my answer to the noble Lord, Lord Graham of Edmonton, was not intended to be a facile answer in any sense of the word. I am sorry that the noble Baroness should have taken it that way. But it is always for the local authority, within the resources, both self-generated and allocated to them through the support structures that I referred to earlier, to make the decisions for people in their areas. If it becomes apparent to the Government and to my honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Construction that those resources are not sufficient, then we shall do something about it.

Lord Underhill

My Lords, is the Minister aware that the National Federation of Building Trade Employers has expressed great concern about this matter? He says that it is up to the local authorities to make the decision; but it is a difficult decision to make, with cuts in financial allocations.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, any business, whether it is the business of running a vast local authority or whether it is the business of running a private limited company, has to operate within its financial structure and strictures. Within those each business has to set its priorities for itself. If, as in this case, a local authority decides that it should spend money on, for example, sheltered housing rather than on removing homeless people from the hotels—an issue which is so much criticised in this House—that really is a matter for them.