§ Mrs. Chalkerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will reconsider the use of Section 105 money for renovation, where authorities have large housing waiting lists and old property awaiting rehabilitation.
§ Mr. FreesonIt is for individual authorities to decide how best to use their allocations under Section 105, but the study group on programmes of social ownership and renovation of council dwellings identified, among the priority categories of work, schemes of improvement of sub-standard dwellings, especially when aimed at combating homelessness or bringing back into use dwellings previously uninhabited. The need for such work was taken into account when the allocations were made. In any case, initial works on acquired property count as part of the cost of acquisition and do not count against the Section 105 allocations.