§ Mr. Lambornasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made by the working group set up early last year by the local authority associations to consider the management of local authority house building programmes, referred to in the Written Answer on 10th March 1977.
§ Mr. FreesonThe working group published its first report "The Management of Local Authority Housebuilding Programmes" on 30th November 1977. A copy has been placed in the Library. The report deals with the organisation and management structure most likely to secure efficiency in the management of local authority house building programmes. It recommends that councils should define clearly what house building they want and then let a single committee or sub-committee get on with the job. It also recommends that a committee with overall responsibility for the whole house building programme should be set up, that one officer should be given the power to manage the house building programme and that there should be an adequate system for programming and controlling developments in the light of their true costs.
The group is now working on the second part of its terms of reference and intends to issue a further report, which will consider efficiency and value for money.