§ 38. Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the uptake of home improvement grants in Scotland.
§ Mr. Allan StewartAnnual numbers of house improvement and repairs grants approved by local authorities have both shown a marked increase in the period since this Government took office, and total expenditure by local authorities on the payment of such grants has risen correspondingly in real terms. In the same 4-year period the number of sub-tolerable houses has been reduced by an estimated figure of 37,000 to 89,000 as at 31 December 1982. The rate of increase in the take-up of162W improvement grants is partly at least, due to the repeal in June 1981 of Section 9(3) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1974 which required the repayment of grant when the house concerned came to be owned and occupied by a person other than the original recipient of the grant.
Uptake of repairs grant has been very substantially increased by the provision made a year ago that grant should be payable at up to 90 per cent. of approved expenditure: these arrangements are now continuing up to 31 March 1984.
I expect the increase of 20 per cent. in the limits of approved expenditure for the purpose of improvement and repairs grants announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 15 March to contribute further to these encouraging trends, which are central to our policy for the private housing sector.