HC Deb 15 February 1982 vol 18 cc8-9
7. Sir Anthony Meyer

asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will take steps to ensure that local housing authorities spend the net proceeds of council house sales for housing purposes.

Mr. Wyn Roberts

Decisions on the spending of the net proceeds from council house sales are a matter for individual local authorities, but the receipts present authorities with a fine opportunity to make a real impact on the housing needs of their areas. I hope that they will not fail to take full advantage of it.

Sir Anthony Meyer

How much money is available to local authorities? Is not a substantial sum now available to them which they could use for either house building or house repairs? Should not charges that they are being starved of money for that purpose be seen in that context?

Mr. Roberts

The amount about which we are talking is £33 million, which compares with total allocations of £97.8 million this year. My hon. Friend is right to highlight the inconsistency of authorities which complain of inadequate resources and yet have the possibility of obtaining resources from the sale of council houses. They can use that money—I hope that they do—to renew improvement grants and to pay the maximum permitted amount of grant.

Mr. loan Evans

What are the average net proceeds of the sale of a council house, and what is the cost to the local authority, the ratepayers and the tenants of replacing such a house?

Mr. Roberts

The average net proceeds are about £8,000. We have gone over the ground before. Of course it costs more to build a new house, but I must stress to the hon. Gentleman that the Government have advanced many schemes for low-cost home ownership. He could study them to advantage.

8. Mr. Garel-Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many public sector tenants had completed the purchase of their homes by 31 December 1981 under the provisions of the Housing Act 1980; and what is his estimate of the current rate of completion of the sales.

Mr. Wyn Roberts

Full returns are not yet available, but I estimate that the total of completed sales will amount to 7,000 to 8,000 as at the end of December 1981, and that they will continue at a rate of not less than 3,000 to 4,000 per quarter.

Mr. Garel-Jones

Is my hon. Friend aware that the figure given in the reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Leek (Mr. Knox) of 49 per cent. of applicants having received offer notices is disgracefully low? Will he tell the House what steps he will take to get the figure moving in the right direction? Will he use some of the powers that he is given under the Act?

Mr. Roberts

I regret that I cannot agree that 49 per cent. is a disgracefully low figure. In fact, it is a very good percentage. However, of course we shall do everything within our power to increase it. We wrote to the local authorities in August asking them to send offer notices to those who had applied to buy their own homes before April 1981. When we see how many houses had been sold by the end of the last year, we shall consider sending further notices to local authorities, which will seek to ensure further completions.

Mr. D. E. Thomas

How long does it take the Welsh Office to reply to requests from local authorities on housing policy and sanctions? Is it as long as it took the Department to respond to a letter from Gwynedd county council, which it received last March and to which it was not able to reply until last week?

Mr. Roberts

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that local authorities have been inundated with applications by people who want to buy their council houses—38,000 is a substantial figure. The hon. Gentleman knows that the Government gave the proposals in the memorandum from Gwynedd county council full consideration. We could not have had other than grave doubts about some of those proposals, because they affect the liberty of the subject. Some of those proposals might have resulted in penalties, which would have been much disliked. We do not believe that they would have been acceptable to the British public. Furthermore, some of the proposals would have hit at the value of existing properties in Wales.

Mr. Speaker

Order. We are moving much too slowly.