5.
Page 22 An additional subsidy is at present payable (on a scale related to the cost of the land) for flats built on sites costing £1,500 or more per acre, and for houses built on sites costing £3,000 or more per acre,
6. It is proposed that this additional subsidy should no longer be payable in either case until the site cost reaches £4,000, Otherwise the conditions governing the additional subsidy would remain unchanged.
Miscellaneous small subsidies
7.
In addition, there are at present five other small subsidies payable on new houses. It is proposed to alter two of these as follows:-
(a) The subsidy for privately-built houses for
the agricultural population is to be reduced from £15 to £10.
(b) The little used special subsidy for poor author- ities in areas where rents are exceptionally low is to be abolished.
Assistance in exceptional cases
8. It is proposed to empower the Minister, at his discretion, to pay additional subsidy in exceptional cases where the provision of urgently needed houses would place an unreasonable financial burden on the local authority. This power will be limited by a proviso that the total subsidy may not be increased beyond a maximum of £30 for a house and £40 for a flat. (This will not apply to houses or flats built for purposes of overspill or approved industrial expansion, for which higher rates are in any case to be paid).
Fower to reduce or abolish subsidies
9.
It is proposed to take power to reduce or abolish any or all of the subsidies on new dwellings by Order subject to Affirmative Resolution,
Rate contributions by local authorities
10. At present local authorities are required by law to make a prescribed contribution from the rates for every house on which an Exchequer subsidy is paid. It is proposed to abolish this obligation in respect of all houses, whether already built or to be built in future, (subject to the exception in paragraph 11 below).
Special contributions by County Councils
m
11. In certain cases, (usually where houses are built by district councils for the agricultural population, with the help of the special subsidy from the Exchequer referred to in paragraph 2(e) above) county councils are required to make a prescribed contribution from the county rate.
It is proposed that this obligation should be maintained.
Date of operation
12. It is proposed that the new rates of subsidy should apply to any dwellings for which tenders are approved by the local authority after the Page. 32.1.
Page 22 date on which these changes are announced to Parliament.
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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT