§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he is satisfied with the workings of the Rating (Disabled Persons) Act 1978, and that it is benefiting disabled people;
(2) if he has any plans to seek to amend the Rating (Disabled Persons) Act 1978 in order to allow local authorities to grant extra rate relief to disabled people in order to compensate for the imposition of higher water charges.
§ Mr. King[pursuant to his reply, 19 June 1980, c. 667]: The Act has been in operation for just over a year and I would like to pay tribute to the efforts of both the rating authorities and the valuation office in effecting the smooth introduction of the new form of rate relief it provides.
I have no plans to amend the Act so soon after its introduction. So far as the domestic sector is concerned, the level of relief provided by the Act was set a little higher than the average amounts that were available under the old provisions and the scope of the relief was also widened.
In the case of most qualifying disabled people this will largely offset the liability for water charges that has arisen because of the change in the method of granting relief. For this reason I am not at present convinced that there is a case for any amendment of the Act, but I will certainly keep it under review.