asked the Minister for the Environment if he will comment on the fact that many house improvement grant assessments following inspection by his Department bear no relationship to the actual cost of work carried out.

House improvement grants are not based on contractors' estimates. Standard costings are used by inspectors to estimate the cost for grant purposes of individual schemes of improvement works to houses and the grants payable are based on the costs as so estimated. The standard costings are updated from time to time to take account of changes in the cost of materials and labour.