39.
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the amount of Government grant available for insulation in private and public housing; and what is the percentage taken up in the current financial year.
£31·5 million has been made available to local authorities in England for grants under the homes insulation scheme in the current financial year. Private sector owners and tenants and public sector tenants are eligible for these grants. It is estimated that the take-up will be slightly less than 90 per cent.Local authorities also insulate their own dwellings. No specific allocation or Government grant is made for such work. Authorities are, however, free to decide how much of their housing investment programme allocations to devote to it and the costs may be taken into account in calculating any entitlement to general housing subsidy. Some £3·8 million has been spent on such work in England in the first six months of the current financial year. This does not include insulation carried out as part of more general repair or improvement.