Subject to section 25 below, a local housing authority shall have power to provide any person with financial assistance for the purposes of, or in connection with, the acquisition, construction, conversion, rehabilitation, improvement, maintenance or management (whether by that person or by another) of any property which is or is intended to be privately let as housing accommodation.
For the purposes of this section and section 25 below a local authority provide a person with financial assistance if they do or agree to do any of the following, that is to say—
For the purposes of this section property is privately let as housing accommodation at any time when—
Neither section 438 of the Housing Act 1985 (local authority mortgage interest rates) nor section 219 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (local authority home-loan interest rates) shall apply in relation to anything done under this section.
In the Housing Associations Act 1985—
In this Part—
"disposal", in relation to any land, includes a disposal by the creation of any interest in the land;
"housing accommodation", in relation to England and Wales, has the same meaning as in Part II of the Housing Act 1985;
"landlord", in relation to a person whose occupation of any property is in pursuance of a lease or statutory tenancy, has the same meaning as in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 or, in Scotland, the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984 and, in relation to a person whose occupation is in pursuance of a licence, means the person who for the time being owns the interest in right of which the licence was granted;
"lease", in relation to England and Wales, has the same meaning as in the Housing Act 1985;
"loan" includes any form of credit and the remission (whether in whole or in part and whether temporarily or permanently) of any liability or obligation;
"local authority"—
"local housing authority"—
"public-sector landlord", in relation to Scotland, means—
"statutory tenancy"—