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Housing and Regeneration Bill

We need to shift the argument back to the Minister's point that the Government were not underfunding. They are underfunding. In 2003, the Department then responsible, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, commissioned the Building Research Establishment to look at the allowances for management, maintenance and major repairs. That research, commissioned by the Government, showed that the Government were underfunding the allowances to local authorities by a third. In other words, the allowances should have been £5.5 billion, but they were £3 billion. The gap has widened since; on my calculation, there should be £6.6 billion today, but there is only £3.4 billion. The Government are underfunding in that crucial respect.