§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will now place in the Library a copy of all housing action area declaration reports which are available by law in council offices.
§ Mr. Armstrong:There are over 300 of these documents and further reports continue to be compiled. The documents are preliminary working papers, compiled locally for consideration by local authorities. Each relates to a relatively small area; and its function is to bring together information for the local authority on the physical and social factors relating to housing conditions in the area concerned to enable the authority to decide whether to declare it a housing action area and, if so, how best to take action. For full understanding, maps may be required and also information on the decisions made by authorities following the report. Copies of the reports are available for inspection at the offices of the authorities concerned, who can also supply any further explanations necessary. In all the circumstances I do not consider I should undertake to place copies of these documents in the Library.