asked the Minister for the Environment in view of the present constraints on the finance of the local authorities, if he will consider the payment of a subsidy in respect of the maintenance of itinerant halts and the provision of caretaker services for them.
Written Answers. - Maintenance of Itinerant Sites.
22.
My Department already relieve local authorities of most of the financial burden of providing accommodation for travellers, whether by conventional housing or by serviced sites. The loan charges arising from the provision of serviced sites are fully subsidised; local authorities are recouped 90 per cent of the salary and associated expenses of social workers employed by them to work with travellers; and a range of other miscellaneous expenses, such as the provision of caravans for traveller families in poor circumstances, are partly or fully subsidised. The total cost of these subsidies to local authorities will amount to over £2 million this year and this cost will increase substantially in future years. The maintenance and management of serviced sites, like the maintenance and management of standard local authority housing estates, is properly a matter for the local authorities themselves. Accordingly I do not propose to extend the subsidy arrangements to the maintenance costs of serviced sites including the costs of caretaker services.