HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT SUBSIDY SCHEME AND WALES

Early day motion 964, tabled 4 November 2010 by Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru). Signed by 3 members.

That this House notes the recently published report by the Bevan Foundation, entitled The Great Rent Robbery, which catalogues the failures of the Housing Revenue Account subsidy scheme in Wales since 1989, estimating that around two billion pounds of council house rents in Wales have been used for purposes other than the provision of council housing in that time and that expenditure on public services in Wales since devolution has been over one billion pounds less than it should have been because of the continued confiscation of council house rents; further notes the introduction of the Major Repairs Allowance in England but not Wales, without a corresponding Barnett consequential, and that a Welsh Major Repairs Allowance funding stream introduced in 2004 came from monies within the Welsh block grant and not from a Barnett consequential; believes that these council house rents should have been spent in Wales on improving and developing council house stock; considers that Welsh local authorities would not have opted to transfer their social housing stock to private social landlords if this stream of funding had stayed in Wales; and calls for the end of financial transfers from Wales to the Treasury under the Housing Revenue Account subsidy scheme and for monies previously given to be returned to Wales in real terms to allow substantial improvements to the social housing stock in Wales.

Signatures by party: Plaid Cymru 3.