§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the number of dwellings in the private rented sector for the latest available date, together with the numbers for each of the preceding years since 1945.
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§ Mr. HeseltineInformation as requested is not available. Firm estimates of the number of dwellings rented from private owners are available only for certain years and are as follows:
Dwellings Rented from Private Owners*: England—1951–1977 Month Year Thousands April 1951 6,300 April 1961 4,310 April 1966 3,624 April 1971 3,045 December 1977 2,207 Source: 1951–71—Census of Population; 1977—The National Dwelling and Housing Survey. * Including dwellings rented with farm, with business premises, by virtue of employment; excluding dwellings owned by housing associations. Changes in the definition of dwelling used in the 1971 census resulted in an increase of about 25,000 dwellings. In addition, the Department of the Environment has made annual estimates from 1966 of the housing stock subdivided by tenure, and those are published in Housing and Construction Statistics 1969–1979. However, these estimates include certain assumptions regarding the tenure distribution of gains and losses in the housing stock and are, therefore, not based on direct evidence.