(1)The Minister may, subject to any directions of the Treasury, pay a contribution to a local authority towards such expenditure incurred by them under this Part of this Act—
(a)in carrying out works or providing any land ; or
(b)in making contributions to any other authority or person towards expenses which might be so incurred by the local authority;
as he may approve for the purposes of this section on an application by the local authority made, where the expenditure is incurred in carrying out any works, before the works are begun.
(2)For the purposes of this section—
(a)the cost of any works shall be taken to be the amount certified by the local authority as appearing to them to be the cost likely to be incurred by them in carrying out those works ; and
(b)the cost of any land acquired by a local authority under this Part of this Act shall be taken to be the expenses incurred by the authority in connection with the acquisition, and the cost of any land appropriated by a local authority for the purposes of this Part of this Act shall be taken to be such amount as the Minister may determine.
(3)A contribution under this section shall be a sum payable annually for a period of twenty years beginning with the financial year in which the relevant works are completed, equal to one-half of the annual loan charges referable to the expenditure approved for the purposes of this section.
(4)The aggregate of any expenditure approved for the purposes of this section (whether on one or more applications) in respect of any general improvement area shall not exceed the sum arrived at by multiplying £100 by the number of dwellings stated by the local authority under the preceding provisions of this Part of this Act to be in the area or, if it appears to the Minister that there will be an increased number of dwellings in the area, by that increased number; but the Minister may, for the purposes of this subsection—
(a)treat two adjoining general improvement areas as one; or
(b)treat the addition, in pursuance of section 30 of this Act, of land to a general improvement area as the declaration of a separate general improvement area.
(5)The Minister may, with the consent of the Treasury, by order substitute another amount for the amount of £100 mentioned in subsection (4) of this section, and a statutory instrument containing such an order shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament.
(6)For the purposes of this section the relevant works, in relation to any expenditure, are—
(a)if the expenditure is incurred in carrying out any works, those works; and
(b)if the expenditure is incurred in providing any land on which works are to be carried out, those works.
(7)Where any arrangement made between a local authority and a housing association so provides, any expenditure incurred by the housing association in pursuance of the arrangement which might have been incurred by the local authority under this Part of this Act shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section as if it were expenditure so incurred by the local authority; and where any such expenditure is approved by the Minister for the purposes of this section—
(a)subsection (3) of this section shall have effect, in relation to it, as if in the definition of " annual loan charges " in section 86(5) of this Act the reference to a housing authority were a reference to a housing association; and
(b)the local authority shall pay to the housing association by way of annual grant an amount not less than so much of the contribution paid to the local authority under this section as is referable to that expenditure.