The Housing Renovation etc. Grants (Reduction of Grant) (Amendment) Regulations 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Housing Renovation etc. Grants (Reduction of Grant) Regulations 1994 (“the principal Regulations”), which provide for the amount of renovation grant and disabled facilities grant which may be paid by local housing authorities in respect of applications by owner-occupiers and tenants under Part VIII of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. The amendments reflect recent changes to housing benefit rules and make minor and drafting amendments.

Regulations 3 to 16 contain the amendments. In particular:

• regulation 5 changes the multipliers in regulation 10 of the principal Regulations (reduction in amount of grant);

• regulation 6 amends the definition of “relevant child care charges” in regulation 16A of the principal Regulations (treatment of child care charges) to exclude payments between partners for child care undertaken by one of the partners, and to include charges for child care by schools etc exempted from registration under section 71 of the Children Act 1989;

• regulation 8 introduces into regulation 28 of the principal Regulations (notional income) new rules, for persons aged 60 and over, to treat deferred entitlements under personal pension schemes and retirement annuity contracts as income;

• regulation 14(a) to (c) and (f) amend Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations (applicable amounts) by uprating the applicable amounts and premiums;

• regulation 15(d) substitutes new paragraph 14 in Schedule 3 to the principal Regulations (sums to be disregarded in the determination of income other than earnings) to introduce wider disregards for war disablement and widow’s pensions etc (including in some cases where the pension etc is paid by a country other than Great Britain);

• regulation 16 amends Schedule 4 to the principal Regulations (capital to be disregarded) by—

  • substituting new paragraph 7 and by amending paragraph 30, to clarify that the capital value of land subject to an existing lease or sub-lease and the right to receive rent under a such a lease etc are to be taken into account as capital, and

  • by adding new paragraph 29A to disregard the value of any funds held under a personal pension scheme or retirement annuity contract.

Regulation 17 stops the Regulations applying to applications for grant made before they come into force.