§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the housing needs of elderly people in the north-west.
§ Mr. YeoBoth my Department and the Housing Corporation take account of regional needs in their distribution of resources to housing associations and local authorities.
The housing needs indicator, on which the regional distribution of the Housing Corporation's capital funds is based, and the generalised needs index, which the Department uses in making housing investment programme allocations, are statistical indexes of relative housing need made up of a number of indicators, one of which is concerned with "elderly needs". These indexes are regularly reviewed.
On a national basis, we have recently commissioned an independent study of the housing needs of elderly people to help review the provision of subsidised specialised housing for this group. This will provide representative estimates of unmet need on a regional basis.