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Housing and Regeneration Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point and during my time in the Department I have tried to deal with the need for local authorities to be flexible. That is provided for in the Bill, and it went through Committee relatively successfully. Authorities should provide things such as equity loans and equity shares in order to have flexibility with regard to circumstances on the ground and should consider how best to address the concerns that my hon. Friend raises. In the meeting I had with him, he eloquently talked about the concerns of the more vulnerable people in his constituency and others. How do we deal with that issue? I do not want to suggest that the housing revenue account subsidy review will solve all of the world's problems, but in the wider context, it will consider how we balance affordability and realism in order to ensure that we have sinking funds and that the capital costs of service charges are dealt with.