§ Mr. Durantasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what measures he is taking to maintain the planned level of capital expenditure on construction work in the current financial year.
§ Mr. Heseltine:The Government are concerned that capital expenditure by local authorities appears likely to be well below the level of provision this year, following a substantial underspend in 1981–82. In order to assist those authorities which are not underspending in the current year, I am informing local authorities of the following two possibilities that are open to them. First, for all forms of capital expenditure other than home improvement grants authorities are invited to submit bids as soon as possible for increases in both their HIP allocations and in their non-housing capital allocations for 1982–83. Second, as far as home improvement grants are concerned, local authorities were advised on October 14 of their specified additional allocations made available under the Budget measures. Authorities are now advised that they may further increase their expenditure on home improvement grants without limit in 1982–83, and without the need to submit prior applications. Any necessary additional allocations will be made retrospectively in the light of outturn expenditure on home improvement grants in 1982–83.
In view of the size of the prospective underspend on the local authority housing programme I will also be discussing with the chairman of the Housing Corporation whether it would be possible for them to make use of additional resources in the current year.