(1)According as the Secretary of State may determine, a housing association grant in respect of a housing project shall be payable—
(a)in a single sum at such time as, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, the project is completed, or
(b)in annual instalments beginning in the financial year in which, in his opinion, the project is completed and continuing over such number of years as he may determine, either generally or in relation to the particular project,
but, in either case, the Secretary of State may, if he considers it appropriate to do so, make payments on account of the grant before the project is completed.
(2)In giving his approval to a housing project for the purposes of a housing association grant, the Secretary of State may provide that payment of the grant is conditional upon compliance by the housing association concerned with such conditions as he may specify, including (in a case where the project has not yet been completed) conditions as to the period within which it is to be completed.
(3)The Secretary of State may reduce the amount of, or of any payment in respect of, a housing association grant or suspend or discontinue any instalments of such a grant—
(a)if he imposed any conditions under subsection (2) above and any of those conditions have not been complied with; or
(b)if he is satisfied that the whole or any part of a building to which the project relates and which comprises or is intended to comprise housing or residential accommodation as defined in section 29(2) above—
(i)has been converted, demolished or destroyed; or
(ii)is not fit to be used or is not being used for the purpose for which it was intended; or
(iii)has been sold or leased ; or
(iv)has ceased for any reason whatsoever to be vested in the housing association concerned or in trustees for that association.
(4)If at any time any dwelling or hostel or part thereof to which a housing project relates is leased to or becomes vested in a registered housing association or trustees for a registered housing association, other than the association by whom the application for the housing association grant relating to that project was made, the Secretary of State may pay to that other association the whole or any part of the grant or any instalment thereof which would otherwise have been paid after that time to the association by whom the application for the grant was made.
(5)If, at any time after a housing association grant or any payment in respect of such a grant has been made to a registered housing association, it appears to the Secretary of State that any building to which the housing project concerned relates has ceased to be available for use for the purpose for which, at the time the project was approved, it was intended that it should be used, he may direct the association to pay to him an amount equal to the whole or such proportion as he may determine of that grant or, as the case may be, of any payment made in respect of it; and any amount which a registered housing association is directed to repay to the Secretary of State under this subsection shall be recoverable as a simple contract debt, or in Scotland as a debt due under a contract, in any court of competent jurisdiction.
(6)For the purposes of this section, the whole or any part of any building is leased if and only if it is leased for a term exceeding 7 years, or for a term not exceeding 7 years granted by a lease which confers on the lessee an option for renewal for a term which, together with the original term, exceeds 7 years.
(7)No housing association grant (or payment in respect of such a grant) may be made before the operative date, but applications for such grants may be submitted in accordance with section 29(3) above before that date and may be so submitted by a housing association notwithstanding that it is not then registered.
(8)On such terms as he may with the approval of the Treasury specify, the Secretary of State may appoint the Corporation, the Greater London Council, a district council, a London borough council, the Common Council of the City of London or a local authority within the meaning of section 1 of the [1966 c. 49.] Housing (Scotland) Act 1966 to act as his agent in connection with the making, in such cases as he may specify, of payments in respect of housing association grant; and where such an appointment is made the Corporation, council or local authority, as the case may be, shall act as such an agent in accordance with the terms of their appointment.