§ Mr. Alec Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Wales (1) how many improvement grants were paid to private owners and to tenants in Wales in each of the last five years;
(2) how many dwellings were improved in Wales in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Wyn RobertsThe numbers of improvement grants paid by local authorities are shown in the following table:
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Owner-occupiers Others 1978 5,410 521 1979 5,680 439 1980 6,728 614 1981 6,560 540 1982* 8,626 565 * Provisional.
The "others" category includes landlords and tenants in the private sector and a very small number of tenants in the public sector.
There are also renovations to dwellings funded by the Housing Corporation: the numbers involved are:
Numbers 1978 237 1979 218 1980 252 1981 672 *1982 686 * First nine months. Finally, there are the improvements carried out by local authorities to local authority dwellings. Records of the numbers of dwellings so improved are not maintained centrally, but the estimated expenditure on such
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1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 Current Expenditure General Subsidies: Central government subsidies to local authority housing 49 59 66 38 18 11 Rate fund contributions to local authority housing 6 10 11 12 10 4 Subsidies to new towns 3 3 3 2 1 1 Housing association revenue deficit grants — — — — — — Total general subsidies 58 72 80 52 29 16 Administration: Central government — — 1 1 1 1 Local authorities 3 5 5 4 6 5 Total current expenditure 61 77 86 57 36 22 Capital expenditure Local authority gross expenditure: Land 2 2 1 1 — New dwellings 48 57 59 41 45 Acquisitions 2 3 2 1 1 Improvement investment 15 20 23 24 26 Other 2 3 2 3 3 Improvement Grants 11 15 15 18 48 Gross lending to private persons for house purchase and improvements 26 25 11 6 8 Loans and grants to the housing associations — — — — — Total local authority gross expenditure 106 125 113 94 131 162 New towns gross investment Land — — 1 — 1 New dwellings 2 4 3 2 3 Improvements — — — — Total new towns gross investment 2 4 4 2 4 8 Sales and repayments Land and dwellings local authorities -8 -10 -14 -94 -160 New towns — -1 -2 -5 -8 Associated lending—gross 6 4 6 53 89 Repayments -2 -2 -2 -3 -5 Repayment of loans to private persons for house purchase improvements -16 -13 -14 -15 -18 Repayment of loans to housing associations -3 — — — -1 Total sales and repayments -23 -22 -26 -64 -103 -90 Housing corporation schemes Net loans and grants to housing associations 22 24 29 32 37 41 Savings bonus and loans scheme for first time purchasers (net) and other lending (net) — — — — — improvement work is:
£ million 1977–78 10.6 1978–79 13.8 1979–80 18.3 1980–81 21.4 *1981–82 20.2 * Provisional.