Housing Act 1961
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1961 c. 65 |
| Year | 1961 |
Housing Act, 1961
(9 & 10 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 65
An Act to make further arrangements for the giving of financial assistance for the provision of housing accommodation, to confer further powers on local authorities as regards houses let in lodgings or occupied by more than one family, and houses or other buildings affected by clearance orders and demolition orders, to amend section five of the Rent Act, 1957, by allowing a greater increase in the permitted rent for improvements, to alter the circumstances in which improvement grants and standard grants may be made under Part II of the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1958, and the Housing and House Purchase Act, 1959, to amend the law with respect to repairing obligations in short tenancies of dwelling-houses, and to amend the Town Development Act, 1952, as regards development carried out wholly or partly in a county borough and as regards the assistance which may be given by a county council for town development; and for purposes connected with any of those matters.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Financial Assistance for Housing Accommodation Provided by Local Authorities and Other Public Bodies
Exchequer subsidies for new housing accommodation
1 Dwellings qualifying for subsidies.
(1) Exchequer subsidies shall be payable out of money provided by Parliament in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act in respect of, and in certain circumstances in respect of the site of, any new dwelling which is—
(a ) provided by a local authority in the exercise of their powers to provide housing accommodation, or
(b ) provided by a development corporation otherwise than in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority, or
(c ) provided by a development corporation in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority, or
(d ) provided by a housing association in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority or special arrangements made with the Minister,
and which is approved for the purposes of those provisions by the Minister.
Such a dwelling which is so approved is hereafter in this Part of this Act referred to as an ‘approved dwelling’.
(2) Any exchequer subsidy payable under this Part of this Act shall be paid to the authority or other person by whom the dwelling was provided, except that an exchequer subsidy payable in respect of, or of the site of, a dwelling provided in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority shall be paid to the local authority, who shall pay to the development corporation or housing association, as the case may be, by way of annual grant an amount not less than the exchequer subsidy.
(3) An exchequer subsidy shall not be payable under this Part of this Act in respect of a dwelling or the site of a dwelling except where—
(a ) in the case where the dwelling falls under paragraph (a )or (b ) of subsection (1) of this section, the tender or estimate for its erection was accepted by a formal resolution of the authority or corporation passed on or after the sixteenth day of February, nineteen hundred and sixty-one;
(b ) in a case where the dwelling falls under paragraph (c )or paragraph (d ) of subsection (1) of this section, the arrangements were made on or after the said sixteenth day of February:
Provided that—
(i) a formal resolution passed as aforesaid accepting a tender or estimate which was submitted to the Minister for approval before the said sixteenth day of February shall be deemed for the purposes of this subsection to have been passed before that day; and
(ii) where, on approving any authorised arrangements made with a local authority on or after the said sixteenth day of February the Minister is satisfied that the substantial effect of those arrangements had been agreed between the parties before that day, those arrangements shall be deemed for the purposes of this subsection to have been made before that day.
(4) In section four of the New Towns Act, 1959 (under which exchequer subsidies under section one of the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1958, are payable in respect of dwellings provided by the Commission for the New Towns), for references to such exchequer subsidies there shall be substituted references to exchequer subsidies under this section, and exchequer subsidies payable by virtue of this subsection shall, subject to the provisions of the said section four, be payable in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the said Act of 1958 applying in relation to approved dwellings provided by a development corporation otherwise than in pursuance of authorised arrangements.
(5) No subsidy shall be payable under section one of the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1958, in respect of any dwelling qualified to be considered for approval by the Minister under subsection (1) of this section.
2 Power to abolish or reduce subsidies.
(1) The Minister may from time to time by order direct that in respect of, or of the site of, dwellings of any description specified in the order, or such dwellings in any area so specified, exchequer subsidies under this Act—
(a ) shall cease to be payable, or
(b ) shall be reduced to such amount as may be specified in the order, or
(c ) shall be payable for such reduced number of years as may be so specified.
(2) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, an order under this section,—
(a ) so far as it relates to any dwelling, or the site of any dwelling, provided otherwise than in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority or special arrangements made with the Minister, shall be expressed to apply to a dwelling, or the site of a dwelling, the tender or estimate for the erection of which is accepted by a formal resolution passed on or after a date specified in the order, and
(b ) so far as it relates to any dwelling, or the site of any dwelling, provided in pursuance of any such arrangements, shall be expressed to apply to a dwelling, or the site of a dwelling, provided in pursuance of arrangements made on or after that date.
(3) An order under this section shall be made by statutory instrument and—
(a ) shall not be made unless a draft thereof has been approved by a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament; and
(b ) shall not specify a date under the last foregoing subsection earlier than the laying of the draft;
and before laying such a draft the Minister shall consult with such associations of local authorities as appear to him to be concerned and with any local authority with whom consultation appears to him to be desirable.
(4) Subsection (2) of this section and paragraph (b ) of the last foregoing subsection shall not apply to an order made more than ten years after the passing of this Act and accordingly such an order may affect exchequer subsidies payable under this Part of this Act in respect of dwellings, or the site of dwellings, completed before as well as after the making of the order.
3 Dwellings provided by local authorities for towndevelopment and other special purposes, and dwellings provided by other bodies.
(1) In respect of each approved dwelling—
(a ) provided by a local authority in the course of a scheme of town development as defined by the Town Development Act, 1952, carried out with the approval of the Minister wholly or partly in the area of that authority, or
(b ) provided by the local authority of a congested or overpopulated area in some other area as part of a scheme of comprehensive development the general character of which is, in the opinion of the Minister, similar to development for the purposes of a new town under the New Towns Act, 1946, or
(c ) provided by a development corporation otherwise than in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority,
the Minister shall pay for each of the sixty years following the completion of the dwelling an annual exchequer subsidy of twenty-eight pounds.
(2) In respect of each approved dwelling—
(a ) provided by a local authority for the accommodation of persons coming from outside the area of that authority in order to meet the urgent needs of industry, where the dwelling has been so provided in accordance with arrangements approved by the Minister as being desirable by reason of special circumstances and so long as any conditions laid down by the Minister on the giving of his approval are complied with, or
(b ) provided by a development corporation in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority, or
(c ) provided by a housing association in pursuance of authorised arrangements made with a local authority or special arrangements made with the Minister,
the Minister shall pay for each of the sixty years following the completion of the dwelling an annual exchequer subsidy of twenty-four pounds.
4 Other dwellings provided by local authorities.
(1) In respect of each approved dwelling provided by a local authority, not being a dwelling to which the last foregoing section applies, the Minister shall pay for each of the sixty years following the completion of the dwelling an annual exchequer subsidy of an amount determined as follows.
(2) The amount shall depend on whether for the relevant financial year—
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