asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state the expenditure (or estimated expenditure) for the year ended 31st March, 1971, in respect of housing aids, grants and subsidies for (a) private houses, new and reconstructed and (b) local authority houses under the headings of (1) State grants, (2) supplementary grants, (3) site subsidy, (4) rates remission on new and reconstructed dwellings, (5) rates waiver schemes, (6) income tax relief on mortgage interest, (7) total of (1) to (7) and (8) subsidy on loan charges; and if he will, in future, pay to housing authorities as a primary payment, instead of a residual or tapering payment, the subsidy of 2/3rds the loan charges, or 1/3rd the loan charge, as the case may be, under section 44 of the Housing Act, 1966.
Written Answers. - Housing Expenditure.
Following is the information:
1. Value of assistance for private and local authority houses in 1970-71.
|
Type of assistance |
Private houses —new and reconstructed |
Local authority houses |
|
£000's |
£000's |
|
|
1. State grants |
3,639 |
3 |
|
2. Supplementary grants |
2,183 |
— |
|
3. Site subsidy |
20 |
— |
|
4. Rates waiver schemes |
209 |
48 |
|
5. Subsidies towards loan charges |
— |
9,242 |
|
6. Total (1—5) |
6,051 |
9,293 |
NOTES: (a) State and local authority assistance for local authority houses—other than grants for improvements to these houses—is in the form of contributions towards loan charges and losses borne on the rates and is included at (5) above. The expenditure of £3,000 shown for local authority houses at (1) represents grants for improvements to these houses.
(b) Information on the value of income tax relief on mortgage interest is not available. While details of the cost of rates remission on new, and reconstructed dwellings are not available it is estimated that the cost would be of the order of £4 million.
(c) The figure for subsidies towards loan charges on local authority housing comprises £4.24 million in subsidy payments by the Department of Local Government and £5.0 million in losses borne on the rates.
2. Payment of housing subsidy
At present, housing subsidies are paid on the basis of a percentage contribution to loan charges subject to prescribed limits of capital cost and to the loss to the housing authority arising on a particular scheme.
Subsidy is calculated in relation to each housing scheme and in the case of any scheme where the loss for a particular year is less than the maximum amount of subsidy payable, the subsidy actually paid is equivalent to the amount of the loss. As and from 1965-66 the procedure was modified to allow the maximum amount of subsidy to be paid for any scheme financed by a loan sanctioned in the case of urban housing authorities before 1st May, 1953 and in the case of rural housing authorities before 1st April, 1960. I do not propose to make any additional modification to the procedure for payment of subsidy on the basis suggested by the Deputy.