Housing Defects Act 1984

19 Secretary of State's contribution to expenditure

(1) The Secretary of State may if he thinks fit in any case contribute towards the expense incurred by a housing authority—

(a) in giving assistance in respect of a defective dwelling by way of reinstatement grant under section 5 of this Act, or, where it is a defective dwelling by virtue of section 1 of this Act, by way of repurchase under section 6 or 7 of this Act, or

(b) in making any payment under section 8 or 9 of this Act.

(2) His contribution shall take the form of an annual payment, for a period of twenty years beginning with the financial year in which the work in respect of which the grant was payable was completed or in which the acquisition of the interest concerned was completed or in which the payment under section 8 or 9 of this Act was made, as the case may be, of a sum equal to the relevant percentage of the annual loan charges referable to the amount of the expense incurred.

(3) In subsection (2) above, " the relevant percentage" means—

(a) in the case of reinstatement grant, 90 per cent.,

(b) in the case of repurchase or of any payment under section 8 or 9 of this Act, being a case in which there has at any time been a disposal of a relevant interest in the defective dwelling concerned by the housing authority or any authority being their predecessor, 75 per cent., and

(c) in any other case of repurchase or payment under that section, 100 per cent.,

or such other percentage as (in any of those cases) the Secretary of State may with the consent of the Treasury by order specify in respect of assistance, or payments, or any class of assistance or payments specified in the order, given or made in pursuance of applications made after such date as may be so specified.

(4) An order under subsection (3) above—

(a) may make different provision for assistance given or payments made in respect of defective dwellings in different areas or under different provisions or for different purposes of the same provision,

(b) shall not be made unless a draft of the order has been laid before and approved by a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament, and

(c) shall not specify a date earlier than the date of the laying of the draft.

(5) The amount to be taken for the purposes of this section as the amount of the expense incurred is—

(a) in the case of reinstatement grant, the amount of the grant, and

(b) in the case of repurchase—

(i) the price paid for the acquisition of the interest concerned, together with any amount reimbursed under section 11 of this Act, less

(ii) the value of that interest at " the relevant time " (within the meaning of Schedule 2 to this Act) ascertained in accordance with paragraph 2 of that Schedule (but without the assumption required by sub-paragraph (2)(a) of that paragraph), and

(c) in the case of any payment under section 8 or 9 of this Act, the amount of the payment.

(6) For the purposes of subsection (2) above, the annual loan charges referable to the amount of the expense incurred means the annual sum which, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, would fall to be provided by a housing authority for the payment of interest on, and the repayment of, a loan of that amount repayable over a period of twenty years.

(7) Any payment by the Secretary of State under this section shall be payable at such time, in such manner, and subject to such conditions as to records, certificates, audit or otherwise as the Secretary of State may, with the agreement of the Treasury, determine.

(8) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (7) above, the making of any such payment shall be subject to the making of a claim for the payment in such form, and containing such particulars, as the Secretary of State may from time to time determine.