PART IXGOVERNMENT GRANTS AND SUBSIDIES
Grants to the Scottish Special Housing Association and other bodies
196Advances to Scottish Special Housing Association for provision or improvement of housing accommodation
1
The Secretary of State may make advances, of such amounts, on such terms, and repayable over such periods, as may be approved by the Treasury, to the Scottish Special Housing Association for the purpose of—
a
enabling or assisting the provision or improvement of housing accommodation by the Association (whether as principals or as agents for a local authority or for any other person);
b
meeting the whole or any part of the expenditure incurred by the Association in connection with any scheme submitted to the Secretary of State by the Association under which the Association will provide or improve housing accommodation, and as to which the Secretary of State is satisfied that the housing accommodation so provided or improved will be let or kept available for letting except at such times and in such cases as the Secretary of State may approve;
c
enabling or assisting the Association to carry out such other works in connection with housing accommodation provided or improved by them as the Secretary of State may with the agreement of the Treasury approve;
d
assisting the Association to acquire any land compulsorily under section 23;
e
enabling or assisting the Association to purchase, on terms approved by the Secretary of State, all or any of the assets of any housing trust to which section 119 of the [1925 c. 15.] Housing (Scotland) Act 1925 applied;
f
enabling or assisting the Association to make loans, on such terms as the Secretary of State may determine, to persons intending to purchase housing accommodation or a part share of such accommodation provided or improved by the Association;
g
enabling or assisting the Association to provide or convert buildings for use as hostels:
Provided that—
i
the aggregate amount of the advances made under this subsection, together with any advances made under section 94(1) of the [1950 c. 34.] Housing (Scotland) Act 1950 or section 25(1) of the Act of 1968, shall not exceed six hundred million pounds or such greater sum, not exceeding seven hundred and fifty million pounds, as the Secretary of State may by order specify;
ii
the aggregate amount of the advances made under paragraph (b) of this subsection shall not exceed one million pounds.
2
It shall be the duty of the Association, if they accept any advances under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) in connection with a scheme, to comply with any directions which the Secretary of State may give to them with respect to the administration of the scheme and the disposal of the assets provided under the scheme.
3
The power to make orders conferred on the Secretary of State by paragraph (i) of the proviso to subsection (1) shall be exercisable by statutory instrument, and no order shall be made in the exercise of that power unless a draft of the order has been laid before the House of Commons and has been approved by a resolution of that House.
4
The Treasury may issue to the Secretary of State out of the National Loans Fund such sums as are necessary to enable him to make advances under this section; and any sums received by the Secretary of State in repayment of such advances shall be paid into the National Loans Fund.
5
The Secretary of State shall—
a
prepare in respect of each financial year an account, in such form and manner as the Treasury may direct, of sums issued to him for advances under this section, and of sums received by him under this section, and of the disposal by him of those sums respectively, and
b
send it to the Comptroller and Auditor-General not later than the end of November in the following financial year;
and the Comptroller and Auditor-General shall examine, certify and report on the account and lay copies of it, together with his report, before each House of Parliament.
6
In this section—
a
references to the provision of housing accommodation are references to the provision of housing accommodation whether by building new houses or by the acquisition of houses; and
b
references to the improvement of housing accommodation are references to the improvement of housing accommodation—
i
by the provision of dwellings by means of the conversion of houses or other buildings, or
ii
by the improvement of dwellings.
7
Any reference in this section to a house shall be construed as including a reference to any residential accommodation provided for occupation by not more than two persons and equipped with cooking facilities for the exclusive use of those persons, notwithstanding that it is not equipped with facilities of other kinds for such exclusive use.
In this subsection the expression "cooking facilities" in relation to any residential accommodation means facilities suitable for the preparation of food for the number of persons for which the accommodation is provided, and if any question arises whether any particular facilities fall within that description it shall be decided by the Secretary of State.