Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1978

Miscellaneous and general

10 Improvement of houses below tolerable standard outside housing action areas

After section 14 of the [1974 c. 45.] Housing (Scotland) Act 1974 there shall be inserted the following section—

“14A Improvement of houses below tolerable standard outside housing action areas.

(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, where a local authority are satisfied that a house which is not situated in a housing action area does not meet the tolerable standard, they may by order require the owner of the house within a period of 180 days of the making of the order to improve the house by executing works—

(a) to bring it up to the tolerable standard ; and

(b) to put it into a good state of repair ;

and where the local authority are satisfied that the house has a future life of not less than 10 years, they may in addition require the execution of such further works of improvement as to ensure that the house will be provided with all of the standard amenities within the said period.

(2) A local authority shall not make an order under subsection (1) above in respect of a house which is comprised in a building containing more than one house except with the consent of the Secretary of State.

(3) If the works of improvement required by an order under subsection (1) above have not been completed within the said period of 180 days, the local authority may if—

(a) they consider that satisfactory progress has been made on the works, or

(b) they are given an undertaking in writing that the works will be completed by a date which they consider satisfactory,

amend the order to require the works to be completed within such further period as they may determine.

(4) If the works of improvement have not been completed within the said period of 180 days or, as the case may be, the further period determined under subsection (3) above, the local authority, in order that they themselves may carry out the works required by the order under subsection (1) above, may acquire the house by agreement or may be authorised by the Secretary of State to acquire the house compulsorily; and the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) (Scotland) Act 1947 shall apply in relation to any such compulsory purchase as if this Act had been in force immediately before the commencement of that Act.

(5) Paragraphs (a) to (c) of section 15(7) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1966 (persons upon whom closing and demolition orders are to be served) shall apply to orders under this section as they apply to orders under that section.

(6) Section 26 of the said Act of 1966 shall apply to enable an aggrieved person to appeal against an order under this section as it applies to enable an aggrieved person to appeal against a closing order.

(7) A local authority shall make an improvement grant in accordance with Part I of this Act towards meeting the cost of the works which are required in pursuance of this section.

(8) The owner of the house in respect of which improvement works are required under this section may apply to the local authority for a loan to meet the cost of the works in so far as they are not met by a grant made under subsection (7) above; and subsection (2) to (9) of section 24 of this Act shall apply for the purposes of this subsection as they apply for the purposes of subsection (1) of that section.”.

11 Amendments relating to the housing revenue account

(1) Section 23 of the Act of 1972 (houses etc. which are to be included in the housing revenue account) shall have effect as if—

(a) at the end of subsection (1) there were added the following paragraph—

“(f) all buildings provided or converted for use as lodging-houses (that is to say houses not occupied as separate dwellings) or hostels as defined in section 138(4) of the Act of 1966 or as parts of lodging-houses or hostels.”;

(b) for subsection (3) there were substituted the following subsection—

“(3) The land in respect of which the local authority are required by subsection (1) above to keep a housing revenue account shall not include any land which the local authority have provided expressly for sale for development by another person.”.

(2) In paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 to the Act of 1972 (amounts to be debited to the housing revenue accounts) after sub-paragraph (a)(v) there shall be inserted the following words—

“(vi) the alteration, enlargement or improvement under section 138(2) of the Act of 1966 of any house:”.

(3) The Secretary of State may, as respects the year 1979-80 or any subsequent year, after consultation with such associations of local authorities as appear to him to be concerned, by order amend the said Schedule 4.

(4) An order under subsection (3) above shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order made under that subsection.

12 Amendments relating to rent rebates and allowances

For the year 1978-79 or any subsequent year the amount of rent rebate subsidy or rent allowance subsidy payable to a local authority shall be 90 per cent, of the local authority's standard amount of rent rebates or rent allowances for the year in question as defined for the purposes of Part II of the Act of 1972.

13 Rent rebates and allowances to persons in receipt of supplementary benefit

After section 16 of the Act of 1972 there shall be inserted the following section—

“16A Rent rebates and allowances to persons in receipt of supplementary benefit.

(1) Subject to any directions given by the Secretary of State, no rebate from or allowance towards the rent of a house shall be granted by virtue of section 15 or 16 of this Act to any person who is, to the knowledge of the housing authority, in receipt of supplementary benefit.

(2) A person in receipt of supplementary benefit shall, for the purposes of this section, include any person whose income or resources have been or may be aggregated for the purposes of this Act with those of a person who may be entitled to receive supplementary benefit or who is or has been in receipt of such benefit.

(3) Subject to any directions given by the Secretary of State, where a rebate from or allowance towards the rent of a house has been granted to any person by virtue of section 15 or 16 of this Act but has not been implemented as at the date of an award of supplementary benefit to that person, such grant of rebate or allowance shall be cancelled as from the date of the said award.

(4) A housing authority shall afford to the Supplementary Benefits Commission such information in their possession as the Commission may require to give effect to the provisions of the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976, and the Supplementary Benefits Commission shall afford to a housing authority such information concerning claims for and payments of supplementary benefit as the authority may require to give effect to the provisions of this section.

(5) The Secretary of State may give directions—

(a) either generally or in any particular case, as to the application of this Part of this Act (including Schedules 2 and 3 to this Act) to persons who may be entitled to receive supplementary benefit or who are or have been in receipt of such benefit;

(b) as to the circumstances in which two periods of supplementary benefit with a break between are to be regarded as one continuous period.”.

14 Rent limits of houses belonging to housing associations and the Housing Corporation

Section 63 of the Act of 1972 (phasing of progression to registered rent) shall have effect as if at the end there were added the following subsections—

“(7) The Secretary of State may by order amend subsection (2) above by varying the sum specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) thereof, and the order may contain such supplementary or incidental provisions as he thinks fit.

(8) An order under subsection (7) above shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order made under that subsection.”.

15 Reserve power to limit rents

—For section 2 of the [1975 c. 28.] Housing Rents and Subsidies (Scotland) Act 1975 there shall be substituted the following section—

“2 Reserve powers to limit rents.

(1) The Secretary of State may by order limit or restrict any increase—

(a) in income receivable from the standard rent of any house or any part share thereof,

(b) in average income receivable from the standard rents of all houses or part shares of houses,

to which a local authority's housing revenue account relates.

(2) An order under this section may contain such supplementary and incidental provisions as the Secretary of State thinks fit.

(3) An order under this section shall lapse at the expiry of 12 months from the date of its commencement, unless such order has been renewed by a subsequent order made before the expiry of the said 12 months.

(4) An order under this section shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order made under this section.”.

16 Minor and consequential amendments and repeals

(1) The enactments specified in Parts I and II of Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments set out therein, the amendments in Part I being minor amendments and the amendments in Part II being amendments consequential on the provisions of this Act.

(2) The enactments specified in Schedule 3 to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

17 Financial provisions

(1) There shall be paid out of money provided by Parliament—

(a) any expenses of the Secretary of State under this Act, and

(b) any increase in the sums payable out of money provided by Parliament under any Act other than this Act which is attributable to any provision of this Act.

(2) There may be issued out of the National Loans Fund any increase in the sums so issued by virtue of paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to this Act, and there shall be paid into the National Loans Fund any increase in the sums received by the Secretary of State by virtue of that paragraph.

18 Interpretation

(1) In this Act—

• " the Act of 1972 " means the [1972 c. 46.] Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1972;

• " development corporation " has the same meaning as in section 2 of the [1968 c. 16.] New Towns (Scotland) Act 1968 ;

• " local authority " means a district or islands council;

• " year " means a year ending on 31st March.

(2) Except where the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to any enactment is a reference to it as amended or applied by or under any other enactment, including this Act.

19 Citation, commencement and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1978; and the Housing (Scotland) Acts 1966 to 1977 and this Act may be cited together as the Housing (Scotland) Acts 1966 to 1978.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, this Act shall come into force at the expiration of a period of one month beginning with the date on which it is passed.

(3) The following provisions of this Act—

• section 11;

• paragraphs 33, 37 and 38 of Schedule 2; and

• Schedule 3 (except so far as relating to the repeal of Schedule 2, Part II and Schedule 3, Part II of the Act of 1972),

shall come into force on 1st April 1979.

(4) This Act extends to Scotland only.