§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government: How many schemes, organised by voluntary bodies, for adapting unlettable or hard-to-let properties for letting or sale, they are aware of; whether they will list the known locations of schemes, and what steps they are taking to draw the attention of housing authorities throughout the United Kingdom to the importance of adapting rather than demolishing such properties.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleHousing associations improve large numbers of properties both for letting and for sale (15,100 in England and Wales in 1983) many of which are unlettable or difficult to let before126WA improvement. We do not keep details of individual schemes in the form requested.
The Government have encouraged local housing authorities to improve difficult-to-let public dwellings in a number of ways. The Priority Estates Project has shown how such estates may be improved while remaining within the public rented sector. Local housing authorities also undertake improvement for sale and homesteading. Some local authorities have sold difficult-to-let dwellings to private bodies including one estate at Knowsley with tenanted properties which has been transferred to a private sector trust.
In examining project control submissions from local authorities the department considers rehabilitation as an alternative when demolition and rebuilding is proposed.