HC Deb 06 November 1986 vol 103 c507W
Mr. Amess

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many housing starts there have been in Basildon by the New Towns Commission and its predecessor the Basildon development corporation for each year over the past five years.

Mr. John Patten

The numbers of housebuilding starts in 1981 to 1983 reported by Basildon development corporation appear in issue 73 of "Local Housing Statistics", which is available in the Library. The corporation and the commission have reported that no starts have been made for them since 1983.

Mr. Amess

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the statistics on the number of local authority houses that are in Basildon, and the number of people on waiting lists for those houses; what information he has as to how many of these are single people; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. John Patten

Basildon district council's housing investment programme return shows that the council owned 6,052 dwellings at 1 April 1986 and that there were 4,405 households on the waiting list at that time. Statistics about the categories of people on the list are not collected by my Department. The new town housing stock was about 15,000 in April.

Mr. Amess

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authority houses have been sold to their occupiers in Basildon since the sales programme was introduced.

Mr. John Patten

Basildon district council and development corporation reported, respectively, 834 and 734 right-to-buy sales up to March 1986. In addition, they reported, respectively, 513 and 3,085 other sales to sitting tenants from April 1980 to March 1986.