asked the Minister for the Environment whether he favours a greatly extended scheme of repair and maintenance grants in respect of the pre-1900 housing stock, as a measure of national economy, as a contribution to the effective conservation of urban centres for social and amenity reasons and as a measure which would expand employment in the building trades.
Written Answers. - Repair and Maintenance Grants.
392.
I am in favour of measures which will secure conservation and improvement of the existing housing stock. This policy has been given practical encouragement by the abolition of domestic rates and the introduction as from 1 January 1978 of an improved scheme of house improvement grants and increased local authority loans for the purpose. In the 13 weeks to 31 March 1978, the number of applications for house improvement grants was 8,209, compared with 4,578 in the same period in 1977. One of the objectives in introducing a realistic house improvement grants scheme was to increase employment in the building industry and it is estimated that employment on such works is now almost double what it was a year ago.