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Scheme of Assistance
84. Part 2 of the Act creates a new scheme of assistance for housing purposes, based on the principle that individual owners (including owners of privately rented houses) have primary responsibility for maintaining their properties in good condition, with assistance available when necessary. This scheme allows local authorities to provide assistance for house repairs, improvements, adaptations and construction, as well as the acquisition or sale of a house. The assistance can take various forms, including grants, standard and subsidised loans, practical assistance, information or advice. In certain circumstances - for work required by a work notice or an adaptation to meet the needs of a disabled occupant (or reinstatement) - local authorities must provide assistance. The new scheme replaces the system of improvement and repair grants contained in Part 13 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 and section 92(3) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.
85. Although in general the scheme of assistance allows local authorities to determine what type of assistance should be offered in each case and there is no longer an automatic requirement to provide grant when a statutory notice is served, mandatory grant is retained for the provision of a standard amenity to meet the needs of a disabled occupant. Ministers may also make regulations setting out further circumstances in which assistance for disabled adaptations must be provided by way of a grant, or another type of assistance prescribed in the regulations.
86. By allowing a wider range of assistance, the new scheme will permit better targeting of resources and encourage the carrying out of more works. For example, some house owners may not need financial assistance to carry out works, but may need advice on how to find a suitable contractor.
87. The introduction of the new scheme of assistance - particularly the replacement of mandatory grant by mandatory assistance - underlies the new local authority powers to deal with problems of condition in private housing.
Scottish Executive approach
88. Implementation of this aspect of the Act will be taken forward by a team in Communities Scotland.
89. The key steps in implementation will be
- designing, consulting on and making interim regulations on the scheme of assistance, based on the current means test, to allow local authorities to use new forms of assistance
- working with local authorities and other stakeholders to develop and support good practice guidance, training and public information
- support to local authorities on preparation of statements on their operation of the new system
- promotion of development of commercial equity release products and possibly not-for-profit loan vehicles
- publication of joint guidance on equipment and adaptations
- review of the grant/assistance regime for disability adaptations (including consultation and Regulatory Impact Assessment), making regulations, publishing guidance
- review of the means test, including consideration of whether a separate test should be introduced for adaptations, making regulations, publishing guidance.
90. Scheme of assistance powers are provisionally estimated to be in place between early and mid-2007. Disability assistance research, review and regulations are estimated to be completed after early 2008.
Local authority role
91. A local authority will have a wider range of options for providing assistance. It should make decisions on the use of those options as part of its wider strategic responsibilities on house conditions. It should ensure that it uses resources in the most appropriate way to improve housing quality, taking into account the circumstances of each case, and allowing as many people as possible to carry out necessary works that would not otherwise take place. Financial subsidies should be targeted at those in most need.
92. Section 72 requires each local authority to prepare and make available to the public a statement explaining details of its policy on deciding whether to provide assistance, the form of the assistance and whether to limit the approved expense. The statement will also contain details of the interest rate or other charges relating to a standard loan and the repayment element of a subsidised loan. See also paragraph 31 above on the new duty to include in the Local Housing Strategy a strategy for using the scheme of assistance to improve the condition of houses. The ability of a local authority to provide assistance with the sale of a house is intended to help with the possible situation where a house owner with few liquid resources has difficulty in affording the cost of providing the single survey and Purchaser's Information Pack.
93. In addition to giving assistance to individuals directly, a local authority will also be able to support improvements to private housing by making payments to a designated not-for-profit lender that lends money to individuals for these purposes.
Local authority preparation
94. Each local authority should begin to consider how it will use the scheme of assistance, taking account of local circumstances and priorities, and also of cross-cutting issues, such as the Joint Futures approach. It will be assisted in this if it engages in discussion with other authorities and Communities Scotland to exchange ideas and good practice.
95. The operation of the scheme of assistance, with a wider range of means of assistance and the need to match the type of assistance given to the circumstances, will clearly be more complex than the existing system. A local authority will need to develop means of assistance that suit given local circumstances. For example, it may be appropriate to develop equity loans or loans complying with Sharia law. The local authority will also need suitable skills available to assess applications for assistance and to make decisions on the appropriate method of assistance that should be provided.
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