HC Deb 25 May 1989 vol 153 c675W
Dr. Goodson-Wickes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to assist community housing and starter homes.

Mr. Trippier

The Government support a wide range of initiatives designed to provide housing for local people and those who are seeking to establish a home for the first time. these include—the Housing Corporation's approved development programme for housing associations. Over the next three years, the number of new homes for rent approved by the Corporation is set to rise by 50 per cent. (to 24,000) while the low cost home ownership programme should nearly double in that period; — subsidised shared ownership schemes provided by local authorities and housing associations which allow the shared owner to buy out the remainder of the equity, thus providing a route to full home ownership; — assistance to tenants in the housing association and local authority sectors who wish to form housing co-operatives or other types of local management initiatives. In addition, there is a growing number of co-ownership societies constructing new homes in which members either have an equity stake or can buy outright; and — assistance by local authorities, in their role as enablers, to other landlords in their area using powers in section 25 of the Local Government Act 1988.