Housing (Hansard, 12 June 1991)

§ 24. Mr. Colin Shepherd
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress he is making with respect to the encouragement of the further provision of affordable housing in non-metropolitan district council areas.

§ Sir George Young
Development of low-cost housing for rent or shared ownership sale is rising substantially as a result of increases in public expenditure through the Housing Corporation to over £2 billion by 1993–94. We have also reviewed the way resources are allocated to ensure the houses are built where they are most needed,584W and introduced special programmes to help rural areas. The fall in house prices and reductions in interest rates have eased access to housing for first-time buyers, and deregulation of private rents has helped make more houses available for rent.

§ 31. Mr. Bellingham
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authorities have carried out a large-scale voluntary transfer of some or all of their housing to a new landlord.

§ Sir George Young
Sixteen local authorities have so far transferred their housing stock to new, approved landlords, following a ballot of tenants. These transfers have involved 76,000 homes, have generated £647 million in receipts and have enabled local authorities to repay £400 million worth of debt. Altogether the transfers have attracted over £1 billion of private sector investment in social housing.

§ 28. Mr. Tracey
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he is taking to ensure that local authorities bring back empty council properties into use as soon as possible.

§ Sir George Young
We have taken a number of steps to reduce the number of empty local authority properties. In particular, under the £300 million homelessness initiative more than 5,300 empty local authority properties in London and the South East will be brought back into use; £1,076 million of credit approvals will be made available this year towards the renovation of local authority stock and the housing revenue account subsidy rules have been changed to give authorities a better incentive to bring empty properties back into use.