§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the scope of his powers to allocate specific moneys to local authorities and housing associations to deal with the problems of Orlit, Whitsun-Fairhurst and other dwelling types with major structural defects; how much he has allocated to local authorities and housing associations in England to deal with these problems in each of the past 10 years; how many 217W houses classified as having major structural defencts have been dealt with due to central Government funding during the same period; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir George YoungSection 569 of the Housing Act 1985 empowers the Secretary of State to contribute to expenses incurred by local authoriteis in assisting eligible owners of the 24 dwelling types which have been designated in England under section 528 of the Act. The Whitson-Fairhurst type has been designated in Scotland only. Contributions are payable on audited claims made by authorities in the year after the expenses were incurred. The table shows for each of the past 10 years:(a) the total number of dwellings dealt with, as reported by local authorities; (b) the Government's contributions to annual loan charges incurred by local authorities on dwellings dealt with before 1 April 1989; and (c) the capital grants made to authorities from 1 April 1990 on dwellings dealt with on or after 1 April 1989. Housing associations are not responsible for administering the scheme of assistance.
(a) Dwellings dealt with, reported by local authorities (b) Contributions to annual loan charges incurred by local authorities £ million (c) Capital grants paid to local authorities from 1 April 1990 1984–85 162 — — 1985–86 2,489 0.003 — 1986–87 2,909 1.987 — 1987–88 3,707 4.870 — 1988–89 3,837 8.824 — 1989–90 3,298 16.363 — 1990–91 2,843 17.192 54.544 1991–92 2,419 16.621 63.038 1992–93 1,523 2.785 54.305 1993–94 11,351 132.631 154.464 1Provisional.