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Mrs. Chalker
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are his latest plans for assisting the elderly, low and fixed income home owners with rewiring of older property in areas not specified for grant aid under the Housing Act 1974.
Mr. Kaufman
Although grant is available in certain circumstances towards the cost of rewiring older property, especially where this is associated with work of improvement, my right hon. Friend has no plans for introducing legislation to make grant more widely available for this purpose. However, local authorities have general powers to make loans for a variety of housing purposes, and I would hope that they would consider sympathetically requests related to rewiring from any owners facing financial hardship.