§ Mr. Steinbergasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will tabulate for each year since 1979, at constant 1987 prices, the amount requested by Durham city council for its housing investment programme allocation and the amount actually approved by his Department.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe position has changed since 1979, in that local housing authorities nationally now fund more than half their capital expenditure from capital receipts, rather than from housing investment programme allocations made by the Department. The proposed capital programmes shown by authorities in their HIP submissions cannot therefore be compared directly with their HIP allocations.
Since 1979 the final HIP allocations made to Durham city council, and its total capital expenditure on housing, have been as follows:
390W
£ million 1987–88 prices HIP allocation Expenditure 1979–80 4.785 4.849 1980–81 3.279 3.121
HIP allocation Expenditure 1981–82 2.667 2.589 1982–83 3.550 4.836 1983–84 2.650 4.621 1984–85 2.940 4.712 1985–86 2.400 4.304 1986–87 1.913 25.666 1987–88 11.784 — 1 Initial HIP allocation 2 Estimated by the authority on Form HIP2 in July 1986.
§ Mr. Steinbergasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received from Durham city council about the level of homelessness and the number of houses in poor repair and the implications of this for the level of Government funding for housing in the city.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI have not received any recent representations from Durham city council about these matters which are usually referred to in the authority's annual housing investment programme submission. The council is due to send the submission for 1988–89 to the Department's northern regional office by 13 July.