§ Mr. CallaghanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what further plans he has to increase the supply of affordable accommodation for rent and sale.
§ Sir George YoungWe are pursuing a number of policies, both through the provision of new accommodation and measures to maximise the use of existing property, to ensure that a decent home is within reach of every family. Nearly £50 million additional resources were made available last year in the housing market package to enable housing associations to purchase over 18,000 empty and repossessed properties to use for families in housing need; and some £50 million in grants which enabled 3,300 housing association and local authority tenants to buy new homes, releasing their current homes for reletting to those in housing need. These special measures, announced in the Autumn Statement, brought my Department's total spending on housing to £8.5 billion.
Over the three years from 1992–93, the Housing Corporation estimates that housing associations will be able to provide 170,000 new social homes for rent and shared ownership. In addition, measures taken to encourage the private rented sector, such as our flats over shops and housing associations as managing agents initiatives,and to make better use of the existing public sector stock, will increase the supply of homes for rent still further.