33 unfit, uncertain or improvised homes, or faced with a combination of difficulties”. 116. The Local Freedoms and Responsibilities Act No. 2004-809 of 13 August 2004 (see §37) devolved to département councils, with effect from 1 January 2005, the housing solidarity funds, merging them with the unpaid utility bills assistance funds, enabling persons in difficulty to turn to a single fund. The département plan continues to be jointly run by the State and the département. 117. Where ongoing observation and monitoring of the fulfilment of plan objectives are concerned, the Act on a national housing commitment brings some not inconsiderable innovations, bringing within the scope of the plan or its implementing arrangements a territorial division of activities, the coordination of priority allocations, follow-up of the housing applications of individuals and families covered by the plan, the setting up of an unfit housing observatory, and a contribution from the housing solidarity fund to fulfilment of plan objectives. The report on fund activity has to be submitted to the committee responsible for the plan. 118. Central government must draw conclusions with a view to renewal of the plans, so as to give them a more strategic position by re-emphasising the dimension of control and developing locally-based observatories of demand, particularly in order to negotiate specific objectives when responsibilities are delegated, or to make them known in the context of PLHs (local housing plans), which have to take on board PDALPDs’ building objectives. - As to the delegation of the prefect’s quota 119. Article L.441-1 of the Building and Housing Code requires provision to be made in delegation agreements for annual assessment arrangements; the few agreements already signed comply with this obligation. Furthermore, the holder of the delegated power is required, by the same text, to respect the objectives of the PDALPD, failing which the delegation may be withdrawn. In addition, the circular of 17 January 2005 reminds prefects that they may delegate the prefect’s quota only if this makes the housing service for the most disadvantaged persons at least as efficient as it would be if it were managed direct, and if the State remains the ultimate guarantor of the right to housing. - As to the allocation procedure 120. Rising property prices mean that people who, only a few years ago, would soon have left social housing are staying in it. In practice, the fall in turnover excludes the most vulnerable potential tenants, as social landlords find enough middle-class families among the applicants to fill the few vacancies that arise without incurring a financial risk. 121. The crisis is so acute that the priority system introduced for the most deprived members of the community is becoming increasingly inoperative: contrary to what was still the case in 2002 or 2003, registration under the collective agreements no longer guarantees the allocation of housing, for