Vol. 440 No. 4
152 Miss M. Wallace asked the Minister for the Environment when the income limit for local authority housing and local authority loans was raised to £12,000; the plans, if any, he has for raising the limit at present; the plans, if any, he has for a special exemption for people applying for shared ownership on hardship grounds such as marriage breakdown.
Local authorities are not required to apply an income limit in determining eligibility for local authority housing. The £12,000 income limit for local authority housing loans, which applies to households with only one earner, has been in effect since 14 February 1991. That limit and the provisions of the shared ownership scheme, both of which were introduced in the plan for social housing, are being examined as part of the general review of the measures in that plan currently being carried out by my Department. Pending completion of the review and decisions arising from it, I do not propose to comment on the possible outcome.
