Housing Act 1980

Housing Revenue Account and Housing Repairs Account

134 Working balance in Housing Revenue Account

(1) Section 1(3) of the 1975 Act (restriction on working balances in Housing Revenue Account) shall cease to have effect.

(2) Any authority which keeps a Housing Revenue Account may from time to time carry to the credit of its general rate fund (or, as the case may be, the general fund or the general rate) the whole or part of any balance in its Housing Revenue Account.

135 Housing Repairs Account

(1) Any local authority may, for the year 1981-82 and for subsequent years, keep an account (to be known as the Housing Repairs Account) in accordance with this section.

(2) Every authority which keeps a Housing Repairs Account shall credit to the account—

(a) contributions from its Housing Revenue Account;

(b) income arising from the investment or other use of money credited to the account; and

(c) sums received by the authority in connection with the repair or maintenance of any of its housing stock, either from its tenants or from the sale of scrapped or salvaged materials.

(3) Every such authority shall debit to its Housing Repairs Account—

(a) all expenditure incurred by it in connection with the repair or maintenance of any of its housing stock ;

(b) any amount which is carried to the credit of its Housing Revenue Account in accordance with subsection (5) below; and

(c) such expenditure incurred by it in connection with the improvement or replacement of any of its housing stock as may from time to time be determined by the Secretary of State.

(4) Every such authority shall ensure that sufficient credits are carried to its Housing Repairs Account to secure that the account never shows a debit balance.

(5) If an authority considers that any credit balance in its Housing Repairs Account at the end of a year will not be required for the purposes of that account, it may carry some or all of the balance to the credit of its Housing Revenue Account.

(6) If an authority which has opened a Housing Repairs Account ceases to maintain the account, any balance shall be carried to its Housing Revenue Account.

(7) In paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 1 to the 1972 Act (items to be debited to Housing Revenue Account)—

(a) at the end of sub-paragraph (c) there are added the words " (except where that expenditure is properly debited to the Housing Repairs Account) "; and

(b) after that sub-paragraph there is inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(d) contributions from the account to the Housing Repairs Account.”

(8) In paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 1 to the 1972 Act (Secretary of State's directions as to amounts to be credited or debited to Housing Revenue Account), after the words " Revenue Account" there are inserted the words " or, as the case may be, a Housing Repairs Account ".

(9) Any determination by the Secretary of State under subsection (3)(c) above may be made to apply to local authorities generally or to a particular authority or group of authorities and may make different provision in respect of different cases or descriptions of case.

(10) In this section—

• " expenditure " includes loan charges;

• " housing stock " means any house or other property within a local authority's Housing Revenue Account;

• " local authority " means the council of a district or London borough, the Greater London Council, the Common Council of the City of London or the Council of the Isles of Stilly.