Housing Corporation Development Programme (Hansard, 9 December 1986)

§ Mr. John Patten

We have now approved a development programme for 1987–88 which will allow the Housing Corporation to give approval to some 22,000 new homes for rent and for sale—a 21 per cent. increase over 1986–87. This is based on the gross provision of £705 million, announced by my right hon. Friend on 7 November, which included a £20 million increase specifically for new schemes mixing 30 per cent. grant with private finance. Together with a further £10 million of

Housing Corporation—Approved development programme 1987–88
		£ million	£ million
Net allocation (cash limit)			637
Receipts			68
Gross allocation			705
Housing for rent
Fair rent and shared housing projects
1. Contracted expenditure (Block 1)			357
2. New tenders approved (Block 2)			139
3. New Fair rent and shared housing projects (Block 3)			56
Flexible HAG projects
4. (a) Homeless families
(b) Job movers	committed expenditure	3
(c) Other projects	New projects	30	33
5. Major Repairs:	committed expenditure	16
	New projects	8	24
6. Mini HAG:			3
Housing for sale
7. (a) Improvement for sale
(b) Leasehold schemes for the elderly
(c) Shared ownership	Committed expenditure	68
(d) Home-ownership for tenants of charitable housing associations	New projects	22	90
			702
8. Right to buy mortgages and other expenditure			3
			705

Note 1:

Included in Blocks 1, 2 and 3 (fair rent) and Housing for sale is £6.7 million to cover the cost of certain projects to be undertaken on Merseyside.

Note 2:

Within the provision for flexible HAG £3 million has been allocated to permit the transfer of some 700 units previously approved for fair rent to funding on a 30 per cent. HAG basis.

Note 3:

New Fair rent and shared housing projects. The allocation of funds under this head will initiate projects to a total cost of some £513 million to be completed over the next 3 to 4 years.

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"challenge" funding we have now added from within the programme, we expect the mixed finance schemes alone to generate £100 million of new housing investment.

In 1986–87 the Housing Corporation was asked to concentrate new approvals on areas of greatest need. They identified 80 housing stress areas for which the 1985–86 allocations for new fair rent and shared housing projects were maintained in total in real terms in 1986–87. These allocations will be increased by a further 9 per cent. to £390 million in 1987–88 but there will also be increases for other areas.

Overall allocations for housing for rent will be 17 per cent. above 1985–86 levels of investment. The priorities for this programme will be to help homeless families, especially those in bed and breakfast accommodation, schemes to assist job mobility and provision for others with special housing needs including those in rural stress areas. The allocations for new major projects go up from £25 million to £40 million—60 per cent. increase. New starts on housing for sale will be kept at the same level as 1986–87. Provision made in this programme will be supplemented by wholly private financed schemes, both in the form of the index-linked shared ownership made possible by the Housing and Planning Act and also by the new initiatives recently announced by the Housing Corporation, which they have worked up in co-operation with Coventry Churches Housing Association.

The breakdown of the approved development programme for 1987–88 is as follows: