Housing Cash Incentive Scheme

EDM number 1488 in 1992-93, proposed by Michael Connarty on 01/03/1993.

That this House notes that the housing cash incentive scheme allows local authorities to offer cash grants to enable their tenants to purchase alternative housing, thus releasing housing stock for the local authorities' use; further notes that the intention of the scheme is to make housing availble for registered homeless people; believes that the scheme, in its present form, enables people from relatively rich areas of the South East of England to receive grants for the purchase of houses in areas such as Wales where the level of affordable housing for local people is strictly limited; condemns Wandsworth Council for working against the spirit of the cash incentive scheme by selling off a proportion of the released housing to the private sector in order to create a profit for the Council; further believes that such action as that of Wandsworth Council merely serves to promote profit and greed ahead of interests of homeless people seeking decent, affordable housing; calls upon the Government to amend the housing cash incentive scheme so as to ensure that any household taking part in the scheme are only entitled to receive a grant if they move within the boundary of the local authority; also calls on an amendment to be made to the cash incentive scheme to prevent councils such as Wandsworth from selling vacated properties to the private sector for profit; and congratulates the Welsh language magazine programme "Heno" for highlighting this issue.

This motion has been signed by a total of 10 MPs.