§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what criteria are considered by the Housing Corporation in making decisions regarding the allocation262W of resources, other than the housing needs indicator; and what consideration is given to a housing authority's performance.
§ Mr. BaldryEach year, the corporation discusses with individual local authorities their needs for housing association development and sets out the results in a series of regional policy statements which it publishes in July. These describe the types of development which the corporation is prepared to fund in each local authority area and the resources which it anticipates will be available in the following year. The policy statements form the background to the competitive bids which the corporation then invites from housing associations.
Following further consultations with local authorities, the corporation allocates funds to those bids which meet the locally identified needs at the lowest cost in terms of corporation subsidy, subject only to the association concerned achieving the corporation's regulatory standards. A summary of the framework and criteria for bids for the 1993–94 programme was published in November last year and I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Library of the House.
Other than the HNI, the factor which most influences distribution between local authority areas is the availability of good-value bids, which in turn is influenced by the extent of the contributions made by the local authorities concerned either in terms of discounted land or cash contributions, including those made under the capital partnership arrangements announced last November.
As I said in my reply to the hon. Member on 10 February, allocations are made to housing associations and take no account of the performance of local authorities themselves, other than the way in which they work with housing associations in their capacity as housing "enablers".