Housing (Hansard, 21 February 1990)

§ 56. Mr. Corbyn
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what further plans he has to increase the supply of affordable accommodation for rent and sale.

§ 74. Mr. Buckley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he intends to take to increase the supply of low-cost housing(a) for sale and (b) for rent; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Chope
The Government have taken a variety of measures to encourage the supply of low-cost housing, including the deregulation of the private rented sector and the encouragement of private investment in housing associations. In addition, planned public funding for the Housing Corporation is being more than doubled, from £818 million originally planned for this year to £1,736 million by 1992–93, for the development of new housing for rent by housing associations and the promotion of low-cost home ownership, including shared ownership.

§ Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimates his Department has made of total local authority capital expenditure on housing in the years 1989–90 and 1990–91 by(a) all local authorities in England and Wales and (b) London boroughs.

§ Mr. Chope
The latest estimated outturn for gross capital expenditure by English local authorities in 1989–90, based on payments made in the first half of the year, is £3,990 million, some £680 million in excess of planned provision of £3,303 million. Under the new capital finance system the Government do not plan the amount of expenditure by authorities which is financed from the receipts remaining after debt redemption or from revenue. The figure of £3,131 million for 1990–91 in the latest expenditure plans (Cm. 1008) is therefore only illustrative758W and reflects the changing role of local housing authorities, away from being direct providers of subsidised rented housing, while the capital resources available to housing associations are substantially increased.
Equivalent estimates for London boroughs are not readily available. For information about Wales I refer the hon. Member to the Secretary of State for Wales.

§ 84. Mr. Janner
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement concerning the allocation of funds to Leicester city council for the building of new houses.

§ Mr. Chope
Leicester city council was informed on 21 December 1989 that its housing investment programme allocation for 1990–91 was £18.320 million. This compares favourably with allocations to other authorities of a similar size. In addition, up to a further £2.5 million is available for new Estate Action schemes. It is for the council to decide how much of its HIP allocation should be spent on a new build programme.

§ 60. Mr. Colin Shepherd
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he is taking to increase the supply of low-cost housing for sale or rent in rural areas.

§ Mr. Chope
The Government have more than doubled public funding through the Housing Corporation for new investment by housing associations, so enabling the corporation to increase the target for development of new subsidised rented housing under its special rural programme to 1,500 a year by 1992–93 and to identify a rural element within its low-cost home ownership programme. We have also made changes to the planning rules, to permit development of low-cost housing for local needs on small sites not otherwise designated for housing, and introduced a repurchase scheme to ensure that shared ownership housing in rural areas remains available for local people.