HC Deb 12 February 2001 vol 363 cc16-7W
Mr. Pound

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to address the concerns of tenants living in local authority sheltered housing that their landlords could be forced to raise charges for warden services in order to implement the Supporting People policy. [150380]

Mr. Raynsford

Many local authority and large scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) landlords cross subsidise the costs of support services for their tenants, such as warden services in sheltered housing, from their general rent income. This practice will stop when the Supporting People policy is implemented in April 2003. However, I am pleased to say that the Government will be making additional provision available through the new Supporting People grant in 2003–04 to cover these costs in full.

In the light of this, there will be no need for local authority or LSVT landlords to increase charges to tenants, either now or in 2003–04 when Supporting People is introduced. Draft guidance will shortly be circulated to local authority and LSVT landlords setting out how these cross subsidies should be identified and recommending that these particular landlords freeze the amounts that sheltered housing tenants pay for their support services at 2000–01 levels in real terms.

When Supporting People starts funding these services in April 2003, the local authority and LSVT landlords concerned will retain the savings they make by ending cross subsidies. As a condition of paying the additional Supporting People grant, we will expect these landlords to demonstrate how they will make effective use of these resources to deliver the Governments housing policy objectives more fully and more quickly, for example by improving the condition of their housing stock and the quality of their housing management services.