§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what extra resources he intends to provide in 1988–89 for the Housing Corporation to fund major repairs to housing association dwellings, which have now become empty and uninhabitable because the local authority is now unable to finance necessary major repairs; and how he intends these resources to be allocated.
§ Mrs. RoeThe Housing Corporation's approved development programme for 1988–89 represents an increase over earlier plans of some £50 million, to £737 million. Within this, the corporation expects to approve £45 million of new schemes for the major repair of housing association dwellings. They have been asked to concentrate these resources on bringing empty properties back into use in areas of shortage. In the past, where the property was originally developed with local authority money, the corporation provided funding for repairs only in exceptional cases. But they have now been authorised to fund repairs wherever the local authority is genuinely unable to do so itself on condition that the dwellings are then let to homeless people.