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18 Dec 2006 : Column 1648W—continued
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what rents were charged by each local authority in each year since 1996; and what notional rents were assumed in each year; [107139]
(2) what the (a) actual rents charged and (b) national rents assumed on council housing were in each local authority in each year since 1996. [107185]
Yvette Cooper: Average actual weekly local authority rents in England are published, by local authority, in table 702. The table may be found via the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/266/Table702Excel121Kb_id1156266.xls
Papers showing the notional guideline rents for each authority in those years have been placed in the House Library.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assumptions on (a) rent allowances for management and maintenance and major repairs and (b) interest rates in later years were used in the pilot study examining six local authorities for the National Housing Revenue Account. [107184]
Yvette Cooper: The six local authorities participating in the self-financing pilot scheme are currently preparing business plans on the basis of the following ‘base-case’ working assumptions.
Rents change in line with rent restructuring policy such that, by 2011-12, individual property rents approaches their formula rents. This is subject to constraints such as caps on individual property formula rents and limits on the annual change in individual actual rents. After 2011-12 we assume that rents will increase by 0.5 per cent. above inflation, using the Treasury’s forecast GDP deflator as the measure of inflation (currently 2.7 per cent.).
Management and Maintenance Allowances (MMA) are uprated by the GDP measure of inflation, then increased by a re-basing adjustment to ensure that changes to notional rent are resource-neutral. After 2011-12, we assume that MMA increases in line with the GDP measure of inflation.
Major Repairs Allowance (MRA) increases in line with the GDP measure of inflation.
The interest rate on housing debt is at the authority’s current Consolidated Interest Rate (CRI) which is the average interest payable on all their outstanding borrowing for the year in question.
These assumptions will be reviewed towards the end of the pilot exercise. National interest rates are not used in the business plans.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total local authority council housing debt was in each year since 1990; what interest was paid on the debt; and what allowance was made for debt service charges in the housing revenue account subsidy system. [107238]
Mr. Woolas: Total actual local authority housing debt since 1990 and the allowance we make for debt service charges in the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system is as follows:
| £ million | ||
| England | Council house debt | HRA subsidy for debt charges |
The actual figures on housing debt are not the same as the notional debt figures which we used to calculate the debt service charges.
Communities and Local Government does not have data on the actual interest local authorities paid on their housing debt.
2004-05 is the latest year for which audited data is available.
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