78
TABLE “A”.
HOUSING (FINANCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) BILL-
FEBRUARY, 1946.
Extract From "The Times" 6th February, 1946.
New and increased rates of Exchequer subsidies for houses built by local authorities in England and Wales were made known yesterday with the publication of the Housing Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which Mr. Aneurin Bevan presented to Parliament on Monday. Proposals for increasing subsidies for Scottish housing are con- tained in the Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Bill, which also appeared yesterday.
The Bill dealing with England and Wales also provides for subsidies for flats, where sites cost above a certain amount, and for assistance to local authorities in the provision The subsidies will apply to all houses completed by June 30, of prefabricated houses. 1947. at which date revised and possibly lower rates will come into operation based upon review of building costs beginning in December this year. The subsidies will also apply to all houses approved under the post-war programme since August 3, 1944.
મ
The Bill extends the period for house building subsidies to 60 years. The statutory period since 1924 has been 40 years. Another change is that the Exchequer will in future contribute three times as much as the rates instead of twice as much, which is normal under present Acts.
The Bill further provides that the Minister of Health may set up housing associations to enable him to come to the aid of local authorities if the need arises. These associations will have power to construct houses and to provide houses which they will themselves own and manage.
are:-
Proposed Yearly Amounts.
For England and Wales the proposed new annual subsidies and rate contributions
General Standard Subsidy.-Exchequer, £16.10s; rates, £5.10s.
Agricultural Dwellings.-Exchequer, £25.10s; rates, £3 (shared equally between
the local authority and the county council).
Poor Areas. The same subsidy as for houses for agricultural workers will be paid for all houses built in areas with a population of low rent paying capacity, and where housing puts an undue burden on the rates.
The following special subsidies are also proposed; —
Flats. For blocks of flats on sites where the cost of land, as developed, exceeds £1,500 an acre, the annual Exchequer and rate contributions will he determined by a graduated scale, in which the minimum will be £28.10% from the Exchequer for each flat and £2.10s. from the local authority, both for 60 years.
Where lifts are provided in blocks of flats of at least four storeys the Exchequer may pay an additional £7 a year and the local authority £3.10. Subsidies at the same rates as for flats will be paid for houses built on expensive sites as part of a scheme of mixed development of houses and flats.
Highly Rated Areas. Additional Exchequer assistance will be provided in highly rated areas where the rate charge for housing is at least twice the average for that class of authority. The Exchequer's normal contribution will be increased, and the local authority's contribution correspondingly decreased, by an amount not more than one half the rate contribution.
Mining Subsidies. If the cost of a house is substantially increased by pro- tective measures against mining subsidence, additional subsidy may be given up to £2 a year for 60 years, plus a rate contribution of one half of the Exchequer grant.
Prefabricated Houses. Where a local authority, using non-traditional methods approved by the Minister of Health, finds the cost substantially greater than for traditional construction, Exchequer grants may be made for meeting the excess.
Annual Charge.
The number of new houses and flats which will qualify for the subsidies is not known, but an estimate of the annual charge to the Exchequer on 100,000 dwellings is £2,050,000, and of the annual charge on the rates £615,000 (equal to about a halfpenny rate).
The estimated annual cost of the capital grant for prefabricated houses, on an average of £200 a house, is £10,000,000.
Ilouses which the new housing associations build for local authorities should not involve any financial loss to the associations, and those which they build for themselves will receive the appropriate Exchequer and rate contributions. The loss, if any, should
be relatively small.
The general standard subsidy compares with the pre-war rates of £5.10s from the Exchequer and £2.15s from the rates and the rapital value of the new subsidy at 60 years' purchase is £594 for each house, compared with £187.10s before the war. The subsidy for agricultural houses compares with £10 from the Exchequer and £2 from the rates in 1939, and the capital value will now be £770, compared with £272.
The Bill provides for assistance to private builders engaged in constructing houses for agricultural workers. They will receive an annual grant of £15 a house for 40 years. This subsidy will be paid on houses completed after the Bill becomes law and is conditional upon the dwelling being either owner-occupied or let at a restricted rent.
The notional average rente, exclusive of rates, on which the subsidies have been .calculated are 128.6d for London, 10s.0d in other urban parts of the country, and 73.6d in rural areas. The actual rents are not expected to vary very much from these figures.
Scheme for Scotland.
The Scottish Bill provides for substantial increases in the subsidies for local authorities and for the Scottish Special Housing Association. Retrospective payment will be made covering houses completed since March 7, 1944. The general standard subsidy will range from £21.10s to £25.10s from the Exchequer and £6.10s to £7.10s from the rates. Additional grants for houses built in redevelopment areas and for tenements on expensive sites will be paid up to £20 from the Exchequer and half that contribution from the rates. Exchequer grants for agricultural dwellings will range from £21.10s to £35 and the rate contribution will be £6.10%. The Exchequer subsidy towards hostels for single persons is increased to £11.
The Housing Association's activities will be extended to include house building as the contractors of local authorities in any part of Scotland. Provisions similar to those in the English Bill are made for assisting local authorities with the cost of prefabricated houses, for the period of subsidy and for the December review.
Extract From Leading Article "The Times" 6th February, 1946.
The Minister of Health has at last made known the subsidies he proposes to pay to local authorities for the construction of new houses and Hats. The broad intention of the two Bills introduced into Parliament yesterday is to meet from rates and taxes the differ- ence between the economic rent of the dwellings built and the rent which tenants are likely to be able to afford.
It is not possible on the bare figures to express an immediate and final view on Mr. Bevan's proposals. Advocates of the decentralisation of overcrowded cities will no doubt argue that the "expensive site" subsidies will tend to continue the process of con- gestion. There will be a general welcome for the power given by the Bill to set up housing associations to build houses for local authorities. But compared with precedents two features are most striking. Except for the offer of £15 a house for forty years to private persons building houses for agricultural workers, an increase on the provision under the 1938 Act, the subsidies are confined to local authorities; and the capital value of the suas proposed, including rate as well as Exchequer contributions, is over three times as big as the subsidy before the war and nearly twice the assistance furnished under the Housing Act of 1924. The concentration of financial aid on houses built to public order can be supported by the evident necessity to confine the use of severely limited building resources to essential rehousing as distinct from speculative ventures or more expensive projects. The work will in any case be done in the main by private builders. The question is whether, in a given time, the assistance of direct enterprise could have raised the total of new dwellings of the kind required to a higher level than the local authorities alone; and the sole guide to a conclusion on this issue can be provided by the regular reports on the progress of housing which the Minister of Health has so far failed to produce. The formidable amount of the subsidies reflects the large rise in the building costs which has appreciably exceeded the general rise in incomes. The figures not only mirror the serious shortage of houses; they also register the great and disproportionate burden which house-building will place upon both the public finances and the national resources— sufficiently strained for such essential purposes as industrial re-equipment-if the cost of materials cannot be kept down and, above all, if the output of each building worker cannot be brought up to and beyond the level of before the war.
―
56
-
57
79
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.