§ 63. Mrs. Maureen HicksTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many homeless families could be housed immediately if all void properties in the hands of local authorities were filled.
§ Mr. TrippierAt the latest date for which we have information, 1 April 1988, there were nearly 103,000 local authority dwellings empty in England. Of these, nearly 22,000 were available for immediate letting, and could thus, in theory, have taken every homeless family out of bed-and-breakfast accommodation twice over. However, the right dwellings are not all in the right place at the right time for homeless families. Nevertheless, it is urgent and essential for authorities to make effective use of their empty property. The new financial regime for local authority housing will increase the pressure on councils to do so.