§ Andrew BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the availability of funding for council house modernisation and repair in local authorities where tenants have voted against stock transfers. [9624]
§ Ms KeebleResources for renovating arid repairing council housing stock are provided through the Major Repairs Allowance, the credit approvals issued through the housing annual capital guideline and the maintenance allowance within Housing Revenue Account Subsidy. The levels of resources (£ million) for these for this year and next year agreed in the 2000 Spending Review are as follows:
£million 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Capital works Major Repairs Allowance 1,600 1,512 1,403 Housing credit approvals 705 793 842 Revenue expenditure Maintenance allowance 1,915 1,805 1,685 It is for local authorities to decide, in consultation with their tenants, whether they wish to pursue the available options for generating increased investment in the housing stock. In addition to housing transfer, additional resources are available through the arms length management (£460 million available over the three years to 2003–04) and Private Finance Initiatives (£760 million over the three years).Where an authority has had an unsuccessful partial or whole housing transfer ballot it will be essential to understand the reasons why tenants voted against the transfer. There is no bar on these authorities revisiting transfer.