§ Mr. Garel-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to announce details of the new procedures for local authority housing project control.
§ Mr. HeseltineA circular—DOE circular 7/81 (Welsh Office 11/81)—is being sent today to local authorities in England and Wales, setting out the new procedures. These come into effect on 1 April.
The mandatory minimum standards and cost limits for local authority housebuilding will disappear.
For each new build or renovation scheme, the authority will complete a simple form, send it to my Department or the Welsh Office and make a copy available to local people.
The Department or the Welsh Ofice will intervene only if the estimated cost is so high or so disproportionate to any likely benefit that the use of scarce public resources would clearly be unjustifiable.
Otherwise the authority will be free to proceed with the scheme without further reference to the Government, unless costs or other aspects change significantly, in which case the authority must re-submit before accepting a tender.
117WWhen the scheme is complete, the authority will inform local people and the Government of the actual cost.
Case-by-case control over housing land acquisition and municipalisation must, however, continue to ensure that public resources are not wasted on indiscriminate purchases.
The new procedures will give authorities freedom and responsibility to take their own decisions about housing schemes; make them more directly accountable to their electorate for those decisions; and cut out unnecessary bureaucracy.