§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what concerns were expressed by his officials to himself or his predecessors in the operation by Westminster or Wandsworth council of(a) the cash incentive scheme and (b) the right to buy in general.
§ Sir George YoungBy convention, advice given by officials to Ministers is not disclosed.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what reference was made to the cash incentive schemes and right-to-buy policies of Westminster and Wandsworth councils in their housing investment programme submissions, monitoring statements and meetings since 1985; what concerns were expressed by his officials as a result of these; and what changes were made to the scheme.
§ Sir George YoungLocal authorities' HIP submissions are public documents and copies have been placed in the Library of the House. The Department collects detailed information at the end of each financial year from all local authorities operating cash incentive schemes under section 129 of the Housing Act 1988, and monitors the right-to-buy performance of all London boroughs. We were satisfied that Wandsworth's proposals met the criteria80W but, in the case of Westminster, following discussions with the Department when the borough first planned to run a cash incentive scheme in 1989–90, the council confirmed that when properties vacated were to be sold they would be offered to existing council tenants only, thus creating a vacancy for reletting to a homeless household.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what reviews were carried out by his Department of the cash incentive schemes operated by Westminster and Wandsworth councils; what the results of these were; and what changes were made to the schemes as a result;
(2) what measures were taken by his Department to ensure that where the payment of a cash incentive in Wandsworth and Westminster council did not under their scheme result in the vacated houses being allocated for rent to someone in housing need the purchaser of those vacant properties themselves vacated a property which was let to someone in housing need.
§ Sir George YoungSince the introduction of the cash incentive scheme in 1989, the Department has collected detailed information at the end of each financial year. This includes the number of grants paid and dwellings released for each local authority running a CIS. It enables the Department to monitor schemes to ensure that they meet the objective of releasing vacancies to house—directly or indirectly—homeless households.
No changes were made to the schemes run by Westminster council or Wandsworth council as a result of this monitoring process.
The results of the first two years of this monitoring process were published by HMSO in a repoert "Cash Incentives Review" in 1992; a copy is in the Library.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment for what reasons Westminster council was judged to be performing well in its housing policies which led to the award of higher housing investment programme allocations in recent years; and by how much the allocation was increased as a result.
§ Sir George YoungWestminster city council's performance as a housing authority was assessed against the criteria published by my Department at the beginning of each HIP round.
In recent years, Westminster has been assessed as performing strongly across the board, with particular strengths in the management of its stock, the promotion of tenant involvement and self-management, and the support of housing associations. These assessment's of Westminster's efficiency and effectiveness, along with assessments in respect of other published criteria, have been reflected in the discretionary elements of its HIP allocations.
For the past three years, discretion has been used to allocate 60 per cent. of the HIP annual capital guidelines, the remainder being allocated on the basis of a calculation of the general housing needs of local authorities. Westminster has in recognition of its efficiency and effectiveness been allocated ACGs significantly greater than it would have been using the needs calculation alone.
The criteria used in assessing housing authorities are available from the Library of the House, as are the details of the HIP allocations of individual authorities, and the calculations of their general housing needs.
81W
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when approval was given to the cash incentive scheme operated by(a) Westminster and (b) Wandsworth councils; and what special conditions were added to the schemes as proposed by these councils.
§ Sir George YoungAny local authority which applies under section 129 of the Housing Act 1988 to run a cash incentive scheme is required to ensure that the number of grants paid equals the number of people rehoused in rented accommodation; that grants are paid only to tenants who could not afford to buy without this assistance; and that the amount of individual grants is kept within the prescribed limit.
Both Westminster council and Wandsworth council met these criteria. Formal approval to run a cash incentive scheme in 1989–90 was granted to them on 14 August 1989 and 22 May 1989 respectively.
No changes were made by Westminster and Wandsworth councils when they sought and obtained annually approval to run a cash incentive scheme in subsequent years.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what amount of subsidy was paid under the cash incentive scheme to Westminster and Wandsworth councils in each year since the scheme was introduced.
§ Sir George YoungThe table shows the total Government resources made available in the form of supplementary credit approvals to Westminster and Wandsworth councils for cash incentive schemes each year since the scheme was introduced. No Government resources were made available in 1989–90 or in 1993–94.
Year Wandsworth £ Westminster £ 11990–91 1,933,464 1,409,000 11991–92 2,446,000 2,611,000 21992–93 480,995 658,000 1 Made available under the homelessness initiative. 2 Made available under the housing market package.