HL Deb 29 October 1984 vol 456 cc348-50

2.57 p.m.

Baroness Lane-Fox

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 they will review the regulations included in the Housing and Building Control Act 1984 which in effect removes the right to buy from those disabled people whose homes have been extensively adapted to meet their special needs.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, it is only two months since the Act came into force, and the rules affecting housing for the disabled were extensively debated during the Bill's passage. The Government will, of course, monitor the Act's operation, but I believe it is too soon to promise a review of the new provision.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for that reply. Is the effect of the ill-judged amendment that those like Mrs. Strudwick of Colchester, whose council house has been adapted to accommodate an iron lung, may be thwarted in their attempts to own their own homes? Why do the most severely handicapped have to be discriminated against in this way?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, I am aware of the case of Mrs Strudwick, to which my noble friend refers, but I should point out that, for the first time, the Act gives the automatic right to buy to those disabled people who have had minor adaptations made to their homes, so in general the disabled are better off than they were before. However, I accept that this does not go as far as my noble friend would like. This is highlighted by the unfortunate case of Mrs. Strudwick.

Baroness Birk

My Lords, will the Minister agree that nothing was removed from the disabled, and that in fact the right to buy in relation to houses adapted for the disabled was brought in by the 1984 Act, it was not in the 1980 Act at all? Further, will he agree that the vast majority of houses adapted for the disabled have now come under the right to buy provisions, and that it is only a small minority of those houses which have been extensively and therefore expensively adapted that are exempt from the right to buy? I think that is a provision that he would agree many of us in this House were even then unhappy about.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, the noble Baroness is quite correct: the Act does not remove the right to buy from disabled people whose homes have been extensively adapted, because that right did not exist at the beginning. I am afraid that I cannot help the House about the number of dwellings involved, as I do not have the figures in front of me.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My Lords, perhaps I may add to the noble Baroness's comment, in so far as the limitation inserted by the amendment was 7.8 metres. That is a limitation that does not allow people with special equipment, such as an iron lung, to have the right to buy which they would otherwise have had before the amendment was passed.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, if I may, I shall correct my noble friend slightly in that the figure is 7.5 square metres; but as to the substantive point she is making, yes, that is quite correct. But the Government and I see no reason why, once the iron lung has been taken out of the premises, the house should not revert to normal housing stock. However, as I said at the beginning, we had a substantial and extensive debate on this, and I do not think that this is the occasion to pursue the matter any further.