Housing Corporation (Hansard, 13 February 1991)

§ Sir George Young

In my reply on 17 December to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Hughes),Official Report, Vol. 183, column 24, I gave details of the overall shape of the Housing Corporation's approved development programme for 1991–92. Total net expenditure for that year is set at £1.4 billion, principally for the provision of new housing for rent, but with a significant proportion for low-cost home ownership and with the aim, overall, of tackling homelessness as a priority need.

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I have now agreed with the corporation the regional distribution of the programme. The distribution has been determined by reference to the recently revised housing needs indicator as the agreed measure of the incidence of need, but with upward adjustment for some regions to ensure that their permitted new approvals in 1991–92 are restored to 1989–90 levels (the current year's planning having been restricted by the corporation's earlier programming difficulties). My intention is that in 1992–93, the housing needs indicator should be applied without adjustment.

The planned regional distribution of new approvals for housing for rent in 1991–92 is shown in the table, alongside the regions' housing needs indicator scores:

Regional distribution of housing for rent (units)
Region	Revised HNI scores	1991–92 distribution of units	1991–92 distribution of units¹
	percentage	percentage	numbers
London and Home Counties (NE)	12.30	11.49	2,320
London and Home Counties (NW)	11.88	11.10	2,240
London and Home Counties (S)	15.61	14.58	2,945
West	12.50	11.68	2,360
East Midlands	9.61	8.98	1,810
West Midlands	10.93	10.94	2,210
North East	13.26	14.46	2,920
North West	10.39	11.05	2,230
Merseyside	3.53	5.72	²1,155
Total	³100.00	100.00	⁴20,190
¹ Figures represent the (rounded) mid-point of a target range.
² Excludes Merseyside special allocation, which provides 184 additional units.
³ Column does not sum exactly due to rounding.
⁴ Excludes special homelessness programme, which targets additional resources on the three London regions and the west.

The same basis for distribution has been used for the remaining elements of the programme, including the allocation for housing for sale.

The housing needs indicator undergoes periodic revision. The recent review was undertaken by a joint working group representing the Department of the Environment, the Housing Corporation and the National Federation of Housing Associations. Copies of the working group's second report have been placed in the Library of the House.