§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will arrange for the booklet on the Housing Defects Act 1984 to be issued to all relevant local authorities, as a matter of urgency.
§ Mr. AncramWork on the preparation of the booklet is almost complete and copies will be sent to local authorities as soon as possible.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what sum was allocated in the housing capital allocation to cover remedial work for local authority houses covered by the Housing Defects Act 1984.
§ Mr. AncramThe Housing Defects Act 1984 does not apply to local authority houses. In determining local authorities' housing capital allocations we pay close attention to their planned expenditure on remedial work to structurally defective houses of all types, as set out in their forward capital programmes, although we have not earmarked specific sums within the allocations for this purpose.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will make it his policy for semi-detached houses joined together to be treated together if one is privately-owned and one tenanted for the purposes of the Housing Defects Act.
221W
§ Mr. AncramNo. The private owner whose house is to be reinstated under the Housing Defects Act should be able to have repairs carried out to his property without simultaneous action being taken by the local authority on the adjoining house. If the local authority is taking action to deal with its half of a semi-detached block and no action has been taken by the adjoining private owner, then it would be possible for that owner, assuming his eligibility for assistance by way of reinstatement grant, to ask the authority to do the work on his house at the same time. But the authority would have to satisfy itself that the method of repair would be likely to make the house suitable security for a loan in the private sector.