§ Mr. Allan Robertsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give details and results of the various follow-up investigations carried out to check the validity of amending the schedules to the 1971, 1976 and 1981 English house condition surveys, as mentioned in the report of the 1981 English house condition survey, appendix II, section 3.
§ Mr. StanleyAppendix II, section 3, of the 1981 EHCS states that various follow-up investigations were carried out to check the validity of the reassessment of unfitness. Four investigations were carried out:
- (1) Section 5 of the Housing Act 1957, as amended by section 71 of the Housing Act 1969, sets out factors that are to be taken into account in determining whether a house is unfit. The assessments made by surveys in 1976 and 1981 were compared to see whether there was any difference in the number of factors found to be deficient in dwellings classified as unfit in each survey. This analysis indicated that a dwelling had to be deficient in respect of a greater number of factors before it was considered unfit in 1976 compared with 1981.
- (2) An examination of dwellings included in all three surveys showed that prior to the reassessment a significant proportion of those dwellings assessed by the surveyors as unfit in both 1971 and 1981 were shown by the surveyors as being fit in 1976.
- (3) A detailed examination of the repair schedules indicated that in many cases where a dwelling had been assessed as fit in 1976 but unfit in 1981 the state of repair as assessed by the surveyor had not got worse and that it was unlikely that design faults could have been introduced or that amenities had been removed.
- (4) Independent checks on a sample of the reassessed schedules were carried out by the Department's planning inspectorate who have responsibility for the application of the standard of fitness in compulsory purchase orders effecting the clearance of unfit houses. The inspectorate was satisfied with the reassessment.