§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information his Department possesses on the differentials in housing costs, private house prices, availability of accommodation for rent and purchase, and demand for accommodation, as between English regions.
§ Mrs. RoeRegional analyses are available from regular returns and sample surveys of local authority rents, rents registered for private and housing association accommodation, prices paid for houses and flats purchased with building society loans, prices paid for housing land, and tender costs of local authority housing. Also, average household expenditure on housing is collected in the family expenditure survey: as the sample is relatively small, regional analyses combine two years' data.
Estimates for the numbers of dwellings in owner-occupation and those which are rented are produced, based on the results of the 1981 census and on information about changes since then, particularly new housebuilding and council house sales. Projections of the numbers of households are derived every second year, which are based on official population projections and on past trends in household formation.