HC Deb 24 February 1993 vol 219 cc629-31W
28. Mr. Hendry

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many properties have been bought by housing associations using the additional sums allocated to them in the autumn statement.

Mr. Baldry

The latest figures from the Housing Corporation show that by 19 February approvals for the purchase of 16,666 properties had been granted, with 5,755 purchases actually completed. This means that already our original target of 16,000 purchases has been exceeded, using only 93 per cent. of the funds allocated. The corporation now estimates that housing associations in England will be able to buy over 17,000 homes for those in need as a result of the allocation in the autumn statement. Another 3,500 purchases will be made possible through cash grants to tenants to become home owners. I congratulate the corporation and housing associations involved on their excellent work.

Mr. Clapham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the future funding of small and medium-sized housing associations.

Sir George Young

The Housing Corporation's allocations are made in response to competitive bidding by housing associations. In 1992–93, just over half the Housing Corporation's main programme funds were allocated to housing associations with fewer than 2,500 units of stock. The allocations for 1993–94 will be announced shortly and I fully expect small and medium-sized associations to continue to be well represented among developing associations.

Mr. Ian Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is in a position to announce the distribution among local authority areas of the Housing Corporation's allocations to housing associations in 1993–94.

Sir George Young

I am pleased to announce the allocation to local authority areas of new approvals to be made by the Housing Corporation under its 1993–94 approved development programme. Copies of a table containing the information have been placed in the Library of the House. The corporation is itself writing to individual housing associations with details of their 1993–94 allocations.

The corporation estimates that, next year, the ADP will fund the completion of 54,500 homes, including 10,000 for low-cost home ownership. This is an increase of 3,300 on the 51,200 completions anticipated for 1993–94 a year ago. In addition, the housing market package announced in the autumn statement has added an extra 19,000 units to this year's programme to achieve a total of 120,000 new housing association lettings across these two years, compared with the 94,600 anticipated at the time of the 1992–93 ADP.

The ADP continues to provide good value for money. Competitive bidding between housing associations, consortium deals with developers, and the provision by local authorities of land at nil or reduced cost mean that the corporation expects to approve between 10 per cent. and 20 per cent. more units in 1993–94 than was estimated when decisions were announced in December about the national breakdown of the ADP. This would mean an additional 4,240 to 8,480 new homes for people in need.

Decisions on the ADP and local authority housing investment programmes (HIPs) are now taken within a co-ordinated framework. As I announced at the time of the HIP settlement in December, local authorities, the Housing Corporation and local housing associations have co-operated closely in preparing local programmes as part of a single housing strategy, and we have been able to consider the two programmes in parallel.