Housing: Swindon

Anne Snelgrove
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much her Department has spent on improving the condition of social housing in Swindon in each year since 1995.

Yvette Cooper
The earliest year for which figures are practically available is 1998-99. Pre 1998-99 data is available at disproportionate cost only.

The two funding streams that the Department awards for spending on council housing are supported borrowing and the major repairs allowance. Supported borrowing is where the Government pay the interest on local authority borrowing, allowing it to borrow for capital works to the stock. Under supported borrowing the amounts Swindon borough council has been awarded in Basic Credit Approvals BCA(1998-99 to 2003-04) and Housing Revenue Account Supported Capital Expenditure (SCE) (2004-05 to 2007-08) are set out in the following table. SCEs for 2004-5 and 2005-06 covered expenditure on both council stock and private sector stock, and allocations were not hypothecated. From 2006-07 onwards SCEs covered only expenditure on council housing. The major repairs allowance only came into effect in 2001-02.

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|                    |Supported borrowing|Major repairs allowance|
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|1998-1999           |657,530            |n/a                    |
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|1999-2000           |743,000            |n/a                    |
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|2000-2001           |0                  |n/a                    |
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|2001-2002           |0                  |5,878,121              |
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|2002-2003           |317,000            |5,980,078              |
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|2003-2004           |794,000            |6,096,899              |
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|2004-2005           |1,012,474          |6,171,566              |
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|2005-2006           |1,293,368          |6,342,804              |
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|2006-2007           |500,000            |6,519,964              |
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|2007-2008           |500,000            |6,665,169              |
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|n/a = Not applicable|                   |                       |
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Grants for non-local authority social housing, provided through the Housing Corporation's Affordable Housing Programme for miscellaneous works including improvements works to Registered Social Landlords' housing stock in Swindon, are as follows:

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|       |£      |
-----------------
|1997-98|69,600 |
-----------------
|1998-99|0      |
-----------------
|1999-00|35,800 |
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|2000-01|0      |
-----------------
|2001-02|95,600 |
-----------------
|2002-03|9,800  |
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|2003-04|169,700|
-----------------
|2004-05|0      |
-----------------
|2005-06|0      |
-----------------


Pre 1997-1998 data is only available at disproportionate cost. 2005-06 is the last year for which we have audited data.

Local authorities are, of course, free to spend their own resources on social housing, just as registered social landlords are.