asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress he has made in reviewing the cost yardstick.

The future arrangements for cost diciplines on local authority house building are being considered by a working party with the local authority associations. Meanwhile, changes have been made in the yardstick arrangements to make them more realistic and flexible. In particular, we have introduced a new small dwellings allowance and the general level of the yardstick is now kept up to date by regular quarterly review.