§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to publish the report prepared by Roger Tym and Partners on the work of the Stockbridge Village Trust.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe report is published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office today. It is entitled -Stockbridge Village Trust: Building a Community" and covers the period 1983-85, with a brief update at the end of 1986. The report is a useful account of the early years of the trust's ambitious development programme. It records the substantial progress which the trust has made in transforming one of the worst local authority estates on Merseyside into an area where people actively want to live. During this period the trust gained tenants' confidence as a responsible and efficient landlord, turning a void rate of more than 10 per cent. into a fully occupied estate with a substantial waiting list. And the trust also succeeded in attracting private investment to an area which would have been unthinkable previously: over 200 residents had exercised the right to buy and around 100 new homes had been built for sale in the period covered by the report. Equally importantly, the report describes some of the difficulties which the trust has faced, particularly on its initial financial assumptions, and contains a number of important lessons for initiatives of this kind. We have sent copies to all local authorities in England and other interested parties, and I have placed a copy in the Library. Further copies are available from Her Majesty's Stationery Office stockists, or from the Department, at £5.95 each.