§ Mr. Traceyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what arrangements have been made between the Government and the Building Societies Association for the continuation in 1984–85 of the support lending scheme for mortgages; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GowThe building societies have agreed to allocate £400 million of their mortgage funds in 1984–85 for lending to borrowers nominated to them by local authorities in Great Britain under the support lending scheme. This represents an increase of £50 million compared with 1983–84.
It is proposed to introduce a greater degree of flexibility into the arrangements of the scheme, in order both to simplify and to make it more effective. My Department will be discussing further with the Building Societies
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Derelict land reclamation Category 'A' schemes As at 30 November 1983 Local authority Site Project description reclamation of Reclamation costs (including acquisition costs where appropriate) End use Development costs Ratio of DLC to costs development costs £ £ Northern region N Tyneside BC‡ Eccles Colliery, Backworth Former Colliery 418,250 Industry/housing 750,000 1:2 Langbaurgh BC‡ Lingdale Mine Former shale spoil heap 578,020 Housing 3.700,000 1:6 Langbaurgh BC‡ Skippers Lane (phase 2) Former allotment 159,771 Housing 2,975,000 1:19 Middlesbrough‡ Whinney Banks, Area 6 Former allotment 425,000 Housing/POS 3,500,000 1:8 Association and the local authoriy associations such improvements to the scheme, as well as other forms of cooperation between societies and local authorities.
I welcome the considerable assistance that the building societies are providing to local authorities, not only through the support scheme, but also in the provision of the majority of the mortgage funds for council house purchasers recently, the replacement of some local authority mortgages, and a number of local initiatives in support of housing action areas and other special housing needs.