Does the Minister not appreciate the difficulty of local authority tenants who are in houses on a tenancy basis? If they apply for loans and grants to instal fireplaces in those houses they have actually paid for them although they have no right to them because they are living in tenancy houses. What steps will the Minister take to ensure that tenants in tenancy houses will be able to instal fireplaces and if they leave those houses that they will be compensated by the local authorities for the work they have done in improving those houses by installing fireplaces?

Details made available to tenants are contained in the reply. Matters relating to construction and improvements in rented local authority dwellings fall to be decided between the tenants and the local authorities. The Minister's connections relate mainly to making available the relevant grants and necessary capital for loans.

Is the Minister not aware that there is a disincentive to local authority tenants to improve their houses by installing fireplaces because of the risk that if they move from those houses they will not be compensated for the cost of installing those fireplaces?

That risk is always there.

Does the Minister intend taking any steps to encourage local authorities to compensate the tenants in full for any work they have carried out?

Not at this moment.

Would the Minister not agree that in some of those cases the houses have become difficult to live in and, therefore, they could be said to have been defective in design? In those circumstances, why should the tenants pay rather than the owners of the houses who are the local authorities?

That is a separate question.

This has been the practice. It is open to local authority tenants of centrally heated houses to have fireplaces or solid fuel heaters installed with the aid of these grants and loans. We have substantially increased the grants and loans. This should be of some help to the tenants.

The costs have also been increased substantially.