asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether it is his intention to give specific guidance to individual building societies about widening their status requirements so as to accommodate the £100 million switch in lending from local authorities to the societies; what guarantees he intends to provide for the societies if they do widen their status requirements; and whether he will confirm that he has no powers to require any building society to lend to any individual or classes of individual.

As I made clear in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea, South (Mr. Perry) on 9th June—[Vol. 893, c. 39]—building societies' help will be within their normal lending terms. Status requirements are for the building societies, and I have no powers of direction.