§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has yet met the local authority associations for the discussion about housing issues referred to in the answer given to the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Rathbone) on 23rd April.
§ Mr. CroslandI met the local authority associations this afternoon. I explained the Government's intention, within the public expenditure constraints announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to concentrate on the supply of new houses and the bringing into effective use of property which would otherwise remain empty. This means that we must concentrate our improvement resources on the modernisation of the rather older 309W property which local authorities are acquiring from the private sector.
For these purposes I propose to re-allocate £100 million from the present provision for local authority home loans and to use it partly to maintain the municipalisation programme at its high 1974–75 level and partly to provide some additional funds under Section 105 of the Housing Act, 1974, to ease the position for certain authorities facing the worst problems on related improvement. This task will be completed as quickly as possible. At the request of the local authority associations, I shall be asking the Building Societies Association to hold discussions with the local authorities to see how far they can help where the local authorities will as a result be curtailing their lending.
I am also inviting the local authority associations to take part in a study group, under the chairmanship of my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Construction, to discuss future priorities in these fields.
Finally, I told the associations that in order to achieve the reduction in subsidies for 1976–77 announced by the Chancellor it would be essential for them to raise rents substantially so that they make a larger contribution to costs than will obtain this year?