§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what additional expenditure resulting from large scale voluntary transfers and the formation of arm's length management organisations for council housing has been incurred on housing benefit previously paid out of housing revenue accounts on a cumulative basis in each year since 1997. [147224]
§ Mr. PondThe information is not available. To determine such a figure would require detailed assumptions about the rents each authority might theoretically have charged had it retained the stock.1348W However, the potential impact on housing benefit where stock is transferred to registered social landlords is considered as part of the overall value-for-money assessment of transfers.
Stock managed by an arms length management organisation (ALMO) remains owned by the council and subject to national rent restructuring policy. The formation of an ALMO does not therefore affect rent levels or housing benefit entitlement.