§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list separately for each English local authority which is a housing authority and also in total (a) how many application forms have been requested from tenants wishing to buy or lease their dwelling under chapter 1 of the Housing Act 1980 and (b) how many such tenants have (i) returned these forms, (ii) established their right to buy, (iii) requested a mortgage, (iv) been granted a mortgage and (v) completed the purchase of their dwelling; and, if this information is not fully available in the form requested, if he will supply the maximum available relevant information on this matter.
§ Mr. Heseltine[pursuant to his reply, 8 April 1981 c. 302]: As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made clear to the right hon. Gentleman in her answer of March 18—[Vol. 1, c. 102]—all of this information is not available. Of the information requested by the right hon. Gentleman the Department collects quarterly from each authority statistics on:
- (a) the number of RTB 1 Claim Forms received;
- (b) the number of acceptances of the right to buy issued;
- (c) the number of right to buy sales completed
- (d) the number of right to buy sales completed with a council mortgage.
This information has now been received from nearly all authorities in respect of the fourth quarter of 1980 and I have placed a copy of the information received in the Library.
A number of authorities are conducting sales of council houses through their established voluntary arrangements and a small or nil return under the right to buy may not therefore represent the total number of sales in progress in a given authority. In addition, later information on progress has been sought from the limited number of authorities referred to by my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Construction in answer to parliamentary questions on March 4 and April 1—[Vol. 1,000, c. 268; Vol. c. 104.]