§ 26. Sir George Youngasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the percentage of housing revenue account income met by rents, rates and the Exchequer this year; and what are the anticipated percentages for next year.
§ Mr. CroslandBroadly the position is that rebated rent and Exchequer subsidies each constitute some 40–45 per cent. of housing revenue account income. The remainder comes from rate fund contributions and other income.
Following is the information:
Housing Revenue Account Income: England and Wales. The percentages of 201W income to be met by rents, rates and the Exchequer in 1975–76 and 1976–77 are estimated to be as follows:
1975–76 1976–77 Rebated rents 42.4 42.9 Rate fund contributions 10.2 6.9 Exchequer subsidies 41.9 45.1 Other rents and other income 5.5 5.1 100.0 100.0
§ 30. Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what further steps he is taking to encourage local authorities to speed up their housing programmes.
§ Mr. CroslandI would refer my hon. Friend to the generous level of Exchequer subsidy provided by our Housing Rents and Subsidies Act 1975 and to the encouragement given in Circular 24/75, which contained guidance on specific steps which local authorities could take to speed up the housebuilding process. With that same objective we have substantially increased the housing cost yardstick, by Circulars 152/74, 61/75, and 89/75 and have set up a working party with the local authority associations to examine future arrangements for cost control of local authority housebuilding.
§ Mr. Loydenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he considers the response from local authorities on new house building programmes to be satisfactory; and if he will make a statement on his discussions with local authorities on the subject of housing finance.
§ Mr. FreesonThe response of local authorities as a whole to the initiatives we have taken to revive public sector house building has been encouraging. In the first eight months of this year local authorities in England and Wales started some 50 per cent. more dwellings than in the same period of 1973. As regards the second part of the Question, the Department is in consultation with the local authority associations on several matters related to housing finance and officials have been in touch with various local authorities in the process of collecting information for our review of housing finance.
§ Mr. Loydenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the capital 202W available for new housing from central Government in the years 1964–65, 1967–68, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1974–75 to date, and what was the amount of subsidy per unit for the same years from central Government.
§ Mr. FreesonPublic investment in the construction of new dwellings and the central Government subsidy per dwelling to the housing revenue accounts of local authorities were as follows:
ENGLAND AND WALES Public Investment in New Construction Housing Subsidy per dwelling £ million £ 1964–65 Not available 19 1967–68 618 24 1970–71 625 35 1971–72 644 41 1972–73 677 53* 1973–74 921 80* 1974–75 1,330 (provisional) 131* * Including rent rebate subsidy.