§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authority housing starts, and how many public sector housing starts, there have been so far this year in Warrington; and how many in each of these categories there were in the comparable periods of each of the past five years, and in each of the past five full years.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergAvailable figures for 1981 are as follows:
Dwellings started: 1st quarter 1981 Local authorities Other public sector Warrington district — — Warrington new town 60 — Corresponding figures for 1976 to 1980 appear in "Local Housing Statistics" issues 38, 42, 46, 50 and 54, respectively, and for the full years in 41, 45, 49, 53 and 57, respectively. Copies are available in the Library.
§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how much the Government expect to pay to Warrington in housing subsidies in the current financial year; and what were the comparable sums, in comparable prices, for each of the last five financial years.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe information required is:
Year £ million at 1980 Survey Prices 1981–82 *1.917 1980–81 †3.397 1979–80 3.268 1978–79 3.132 1977–78 2.980 1976–77 3.147 * Estimated. † Provisional. The figure for 1981–82 is based on the local authority's first estimate of subsidy entitlement.
§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the housing investment programme allocation for Warrington borough council for the current financial year; and what, in comparable prices, were the allocations for each of the past five financial years.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe information for which the hon. Member asked is as follows. Figures, all at528W estimated 1981–82 outturn prices, are available only from 1978–79, the first year for which housing investment programme allocations were made.
£ million 1978–79 12.2 1979–80 (revised) 8.6 1980–81 5.4 1981–82 3.8 The allocation for 1981–82 is not directly comparable with allocations for earlier years since, unlike in those years, authorities are now able to increase expenditure in excess of their allocations on account of their capital receipts. It is, moreover, subject to adjustment to take account of the extent to which actual expenditure in 1980–81 differed from the permitted level of expenditure in that year.