Manual on the preparation of state-aided housing schemes.

Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual on the preparation of state-aided housing schemes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/86 (page 45)
    APPENDIX IX. Circular of 6th February, 1919. Circular. County Councals. Councils of Metropolitan Boroughs. Town Councils. District Councils. LocaL GOVERNMENT BOARD, Whitehall, S.W. 1, 6th February, 1919. HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES. Sir, 1. I am directed by the President of the Local Government Board to inform you that His Majesty’s Government have reconsidered the terms of financial assistance previously promised to Local Authorities in connection with the provision of houses for the working classes at the present time. The Government desire that the partnership between the State and the Local Authorities should be such as to secure the rapid erection of the large number of houses needed to make good the existing shortage, and they believe that under the terms now proposed they will be able to rely upon the active support and energetic co-operation of the Local Authorities as a whole. 2. The Municipal Corporations Association and a number of individual Local Authorities in the representations which they have addressed to the Government in regard to the previous scheme have referred to the element of uncertainty as to the burden which might have to be borne by Local Authorities and have pressed for a declaration that in no case should the annual burden falling on the Local Authority exceed the produce of a rate of one penny in the £. 3. His Majesty’s Government have been desirous of meeting these representations as far as practicable, and they have now approved the adoption of a scheme under which the burden on Local Authorities would be limited as nearly as possible to the amount suggested. Parliamentary approval for these proposals will be obtained at the earliest practicable date. 4. In accordance with the revised scheme the terms set out in the paragraphs numbered 2 sel 3 of,the Circular Letter of the 18th March, 1918, will be superseded by the following terms :— ’ Assisted Schemes. (a) The housing schemes of Local Authorities to which the State will be prepared to grant financial assistance, if they are submitted to the Local Government Board within twelve months from this date and carried out within a period of two years from this date, or within such further period as may be approved by the Local Government Board, are :— (1) Schemes carried out by Local Authorities under Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, for any area for which the Local Government Board are satisfied that it is desirable that houses for the working classes should be provided. (2) Rehousing schemes in connection with Improvement and Reconstruction schemes under Parts I. and II. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, except that no part of the cost of acquiring and clearing a site would be made the subject of financial assistance if either (a) the site had been acquired or cleared before the date of this letter, or (6) the needs of the district could, in the opinion of the Local Government Board, be adequately met by means of a scheme under Part ITI. Loans. (6) The full cost of a scheme will in the first instance be met out of a loan or loans raised by the Local Authority, and it is particularly desired by the Treasury that Authorities should raise such loans in the open market wherever it is possible for them to do so. As the financial assistance to be granted from Public Funds for housing schemes will take the form of a subsidy as explained below, and as it is important to secure that the whole of the State assistance may be given under one head, any loans granted from the Local Loans Fund for the purpose of assisted schemes will not be made at the preferential rates ordinarily allowed for housing loans, but at a rate fixed by the Treasury so as to correspond with the full current market rate of interest. General principle of Financial Assistance. In respect of any housing scheme or series of housing schemes carried out by a Local Authority within the period referred to above, Parliament will be asked to vote financial assistance calculated on a basis estimated to relieve the Local Authority of the burden of any annual deficit in so far as it exceeds the produce of a rate of a penny in the £ on the area chargeable, but there will be no contribution towards the cost where the annual excess of expenditure over income would not exceed that amount. — is) nw Provisional Estimates. (d) In order to avoid delay in the commencement of schemes the settlement of the actual amount of the State subsidy will be deferred until after the houses have been built and let, but payments on account will, if necessary, be made on provisional estimates of income and expenditure approved by the Board.