HC Deb 22 January 2002 vol 378 cc712-3W
Mrs. May

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) what guidelines and recommendations he has made to local authorities with regard to determining the value and suitability of discretionary grant awards under the disabled facilities grant; and if he will place copies in the Library; [29115]

(2) how long on average it took each local authority to make disabled facilities grant payments following approved applications; [29112]

(3) under what circumstances local authorities may delay the payment of an approved disabled facilities grant; [29113]

(4) how long it has taken for each local authority to approve an application for the disabled facilities grant, following the receipt of a valid completed application form; and how many applications for disabled facilities grant, broken down by local authority, were not responded to within the recommended six month period following the receipt of a valid completed application form; [29114]

(5) how much money was awarded by each local authority for the disabled facilities grant; what was the average award made by each local authority for the disabled facilities grant; and what funding was provided to each local authority by the Government towards their spending in respect of the disabled facilities grant in each of the last five years. [29116]

Mr. Byers

Disabled facilities grants (DFG) are administered by local authorities who are under a statutory duty to approve or refuse an application within six months of the date of application. My Department does not collect data on the length of time taken by local authorities to consider applications

Figures showing each English local authority's expenditure on DFGs, the average value of grant and the Government's DFG allocation over the last five years have been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Section 23(1) of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 sets out the purposes for which mandatory DFG must be approved. Discretionary DFG is available to make a dwelling or building suitable for a disabled occupant in any other respect. Paragraphs 31 to 36 of Annex I to DoE Circular 17/96, (copies of which have already been placed in the Library) gives examples. Paragraph 10 of that Annex also states that discretionary DFG may be paid where the costs of the adaptations exceed the maximum limit for mandatory DFG. There is no maximum limit on the amount which may be paid in the form of a discretionary DFG.

Section 36 of the Act provides that local authorities may delay the payment of DFGs up to 12 months after the date of application. Paragraphs 58 to 61 of Annex 1 to circular 17/96 advises that such a delay should only be made in exceptional circumstances when a particularly heavy caseload of applications is causing severe resource problems for the authority. It should not be made where adaptations are urgently required and where a delay would cause hardship or suffering to the applicant.