HL Deb 10 December 1985 vol 469 cc103-4
Lord Dean of Beswick

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 what effect the Chancellor's Autumn Statement will have on public sector buildings and the building industry.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, the annual review of spending provided the opportunity to reconsider priorities and the Statement allowed for additional finance in several areas of capital spending, especially housing renovation and roads. The wider economic policies will benefit the industry through encouraging business investment and private expenditure on housing.

Lord Dean of Beswick

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that Answer. However, is not the noble Lord aware that the people in the building industry who are involved at the sharp end, the people who are at the receiving end of the Chancellor's Statement, would contradict the Statement? They say that the capital building programme on housing has been cut by £185 million. They are using terms like, "We've been the victim of a confidence trick". Does the noble Lord know to whom they are referring? Would they be referring to the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the Secretary of State for the Environment?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, I have not the least idea to whom they were referring, or indeed why. The industry has enjoyed 10 per cent. real growth since 1981. It stands to benefit with the rest of the economy from long-term success of the Government's policies. I should point out that we have made provision this year for an extra £220 million for housing, and for next year £200 million.

Lord Rochester

My Lords, is it not the case that the constraints on their maintenance budgets are obliging health and local education authorities to adopt policies for maintaining hospitals and school buildings which are so inadequate that in the long run they will not be cost-effective?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, I am sorry to say that I do not have the figures for education in front of me. However, I can tell the noble Lord that increased capital provisions from £750 million in 1985–86 to £765 million in 1986–87 have been made for hospitals and community health services. Of course, they are also allowed to spend such money as they receive from the sale of surplus property.

Lord Glenamara

My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that throughout the country many educational buildings are not being repaired and that items which should be classed as repair items are now becoming capital items? Is he aware that one specific difficulty as regards the polytechnics—many of which are now bigger than many universities—is that the capital programme has to come out of the sponsoring local authority's capital programme? That system is completely outdated. Many polytechnics are literally falling to bits because they are unable to do their repairs.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, as I explained to the House yesterday, provision for pupils has never been higher in the education service generally, and if local education authorities study the recent report of the Audit Commission they will find that that report shows them exactly how they can make savings in order to carry out the type of programmes for which the noble Lord is asking.

Lord Dean of Beswick

My Lords, is not the noble Lord aware that, even when one applies the figures which he has given to the building industry and considers the problem as highlighted in a succession of reports culminating in the latest one by the committee of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury, they are only very faintly scratching the surface? I urge the noble Lord to urge the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for the Environment to release some of the vast sums of money which they are holding and which really belong to the local authorities in respect of the sales of their capital assets.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, no one believes that the problem identified by the report of the most reverend Primate happened overnight; nor that we can tackle it overnight. I point out that we are making £2.75 billion in all available in 1986–87 for housing.

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