Clause 16 - Duty of local housing authority to formulate a homelessness strategy
Homes Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
Yes, I can. Our spending plans over the next three years allow for almost a doubling from £690 million to £1.2 billion of investment through registered social landlords and the Housing Corporation's approved development programme. The hon. Gentleman will know about the increased investment made available to local authorities that has increased throughout this Parliament, and is planned to continue to increase under the spending review in the years ahead. A proportion of that will be used for investment in local authority social housing grants.
I expect a significant increase in the output of social housing through registered social landlords, including those assisted by local authorities in the years ahead, and that will increase year on year. Such an increase will contrast with our inheritance from the final years of the Conservative Government, in which there were reductions, year on year.
The hon. Member for Eastbourne has made much of the figures. I understood him to say this morning—I will give him an opportunity to correct me if I am wrong—that in the financial year 1996-97, 102,000 households were accepted as homeless by local authorities, and that the figure was now higher than that. I put it to him that that is not correct.