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Loans for Housing Repairs — Old Age Pensioners
During the year the Council considered a report which dealt
with the question of loans by the Council to assist old age
pensioners to carry out urgent and essential repairs to properties
which they own and occupy.
Their attention was drawn to evidence of an increasing
number of elderly owner/occupiers who, living on the reduced
income which follows retirement, are unable to find the capital
required to meet the cost of necessary works at their homes,
such as the repair of a leaking roof or gutters, electrical rewiring
or renewal of a furred hot water system.
The Council have power to make grants for the improvement
of private dwellings amounting to up to half of the approved cost
of carrying out the intended improvements, and such grants may
now cover some items of repair which are needed for the purpose
of making an improvement fully effective provided that the cost
of the repair work is not more than half of the total approved cost.
This assistance is only available where improvements (other
than repairs, renewals or replacements) are required at a dwelling
but an elderly owner/occupier is unlikely to be wanting to carry
out grant aided improvements, or improvements may not be
required. There are also powers available to the Council to make
mortgage loans for altering, enlarging, repairing or improving
houses but such loans are made in accordance with the terms of
the Council's scheme for house purchase and other advances,
which requires that the loan should be repaid by, or very shortly
after, the borrower's 65th birthday.
The Council agreed to an extension of the present scheme
for mortgage advances to provide for small loans to be made to
persons over 65 years of age to enable them to meet the costs of
repair works. By making loans to people of advancing years, the
Council will be relying very much more on the security of the
mortgaged property and it has been suggested that, at present, the
maximum loan should be £300, although this limit may need to be
reviewed in the light of experience and the high cost of certain
repair works. Loans would be made only in respect of properties
which are either not in mortgage or are already mortgaged to the
Council. It appears unlikely that repair problems will be serious
in the case of owner/occupiers who have recently retired and, in
the first instance, it was agreed that the scheme should be
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