HC Deb 08 March 1972 vol 832 cc1435-6
23. Mr. Duffy

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many council houses and flats, including new ones, have been empty for the past six months or more.

Mr. Channon

Local authorities are not required to keep my right hon. Friend informed of the numbers of their vacant dwellings and I am not in a position to make national estimates.

Mr. Duffy

Does not the hon. Gentleman think that local authorities should be so required? Is he not aware that a recent survey disclosed that there were 10,000 or more such houses at a time when Shelter estimated unofficially that there were more than 100,000 homeless families? Does not this suggest a state of affairs, as has been alleged, of anomalies, confusion, and miscalculation by Whitehall and to a lesser extent by local authorities with huge sums of public money being wasted?

Mr. Channon

I will certainly consider the hon. Gentleman's suggestion that local authorities should be required to keep my right hon. Friend informed. As he knows, it is for the local authorities to assess the needs in their neighbourhood. I hope that he will keep a close eye on what Sheffield is doing.

Mr. Allason

Will my hon. Friend take note of the demand from the Opposition side of the House that there should be less council building?

Mr. Channon

I was very surprised at the hon. Member's question and I note what my hon. Friend says.