§ Baroness Coxasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the London Borough of Camden is carrying out its duties as a housing authority with particular reference to its rent arrears and progress on implementing the Right to Buy Scheme.
§ Lord HeskethCamden's housing performance is all too often poor. My noble friend has drawn attention to two particularly lamentable areas.
The most recent figure for rent arrears in Camden is £4.66 million, which represents over 15 per cent. of the rent roll. It is a sad reflection on the council's management capabilities and means that tenants who do pay their rent promptly and the general body of ratepayers have to bear a heavy and unjust burden.
As for the right to buy, the council's discharge of its responsibilities has given cause for very serious concern. During 1987 there were on average 1,000 cases where the council had failed to serve statutory notices on time in response to tenants' applications. In 1988 there were on average more than 2,000 such cases, and by the end of January this year 2,894 tenants were waiting for statutory notices, and 768 130WA completions were outstanding. Although there has been an improvement since then, there is still a long way to go.
The Government have taken and are taking a number of measures to encourage housing authorities to improve their performance, and I am sure that many tenants in Camden will welcome the benefits that these will bring.