§ Miss Boothroydasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the estimate of the total amount of central Government finance made available to the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell (a) through the rate support grant; (b) for house building; and (c) for house improvements in the current year and for the two preceding years.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettThe initial estimate of the total rate support grant payable to Sandwell for 1978–79 is £38.5 million; the latest estimate for 1977–78 is £37.1358W million; and the final amount for 1976–77 was £34.7 million.
Under the housing strategies and investment programme arrangements for 1978–79, Sandwell's allocation for Block 1—which covers housebuilding, slum clearance, acquisition and renovation—was £15.60 million; that for Block 2—private sector renovation grants and gross lending to private persons for house purchase and renovation, was £1.15 million and that for Block 3—gross lending to housing associations—was £0.90 million. Its allocations for 1977–78, when revalued to a comparable price basis, were £15.63 million for Block 1, £0.73 million for Block 2 and £0.21 million for Block 3. Similar figures for earlier years are not available. In addition, the Housing Corporation is currently investing £2.355 million in new building and renovation, ad Sandwell has been allocated a further £90,000 on housing for the period up to March 1979 as part of the inner cities construction package.