Capital funding for local authority housing is provided through the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) subsidy system in the form of supported capital expenditure (SCE) and the major repairs allowance (MRA). SCE is the level of borrowing for capital purposes that is supported by the Government through the HRA subsidy. This value is based on the Regional Housing Boards' allocations. MRA represents the estimated long-term average amount of capital spending required to maintain a local authority’s housing stock in current condition. The capital funding includes an element for regeneration but that is combined with the decent homes programme in the private sector. There is also an element of non-HRA funding for local authorities.
Revenue funding for local authority housing is provided in the form of HRA Subsidy and Formula Grant. HRA subsidy refers to the entitlement local authorities receive from Government to support their housing programs. 2005-06 is the latest year for which audited figure are available. Housing is one of the services supported by formula grant. Formula grant, which comprises Revenue Support Grant, redistributed business rates and principal formula Police Grant, where appropriate, is an unhypothecated block grant, i.e. authorities are free to spend the money on any service. For this reason, and because of the method of calculation, particularly floor damping, it is not possible to say how much grant has been provided for a particular service. Tables displaying the 2005-06 HRA subsidy and 2005-06 capital funding for each local authority have been placed in the Library of the House.
For regeneration purposes, there is no local authority wise breakdown available. The information is compiled on a program-specific basis. Departmental funding for regeneration projects in 2005-06 is tabled as follows.
£ million Programme Revenue Capital Coalfields funding (Enterprise Fund and Regeneration Trust) 10.715 8.500 Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment 6.651 — Design Awards 0.052 — English Partnerships (including Commission for the New Towns)1 -51.014 539.195 European Regional Development Fund 51.242 175.527 Groundwork & National Urban Forestry Unit 3.698 10.352 Housing Market Renewal Fund 0.911 302.542 Lea Valley Regional Park — 0.458 Mersey Basin 0.520 — New Deal for Communities 168.260 100.333 New Ventures Fund 76.558 1.031 Neighbourhood Renewal Fund 525.000 — Other Growth Areas 8.013 70.793 Regional Development Agencies (including London Development Agency) 545.632 941.082 Special Grants Programme 2.783 — Thames Gateway 12.880 149.005 Green Flags 0.356 — Liveability Performance 1.394 0.523 Academy for Sustainable Communities (formerly Urban Design Skills) 2.282 — 1 Negative spend against English Partnerships is due to profit on sale of land exceeding revenue spend.