§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make an assessment of the extent of homelessness in Stoke-on-Trent; and how many(a) families and (b) single people will benefit from the additional funding announced in the autumn statement.
§ Mr. BaldryAn assessment is made on the basis of the local authority's own estimates contained in its housing strategy statement and statistical returns, together with the homeless indicator in the housing general needs index.
This information is used to inform our decisions on the allocation of housing investment programme allocations to local authorities which will be announced later this month.
The autumn statement made considerable additional resources available for the support of capital programmes which will directly benefit families and single people in housing need:
An increase in Housing Corporation spending to £2.3 billion this year, enabling the immediate purchase of about 16,000 new, empty or repossessed homes for those in housing need. And provide sufficient funds to exceed the target of 153,000 new housing association homes in the three years 1992–93 to 1994–95;The release of additional local authority capital receipts, which are expected to add about £1 billion to housing spending between now and 1995–96;And, the creation of a new housing partnership fund where £30 million will be available in the form of supplementary credit approvals to be bid for worthwhile housing investment projects.