§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take further measures to aid financially persons who knowingly purchased defective houses under the right-to-buy scheme and who now find they cannot sell them on.
§ Sir George YoungNo. The housing defects legislation —part XVI of the Housing Act 1985—compensates people who purchased designated defective house types from public sector landlords before it was known that they contained serious inherent structural defects, and who paid a price which did not reflect the existence of the defects. People who knowingly purchase defective houses do so at their own risk, and the purchase price should take account of the defects.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many homes, classified as defective under the Housing Act 1985, have been sold under the right-to-buy scheme.
§ Sir George YoungLocal authority returns do not identify how many dwellings designated defective under part XVI of the Housing Act 1985 have been sold under the right-to-buy scheme. However, local authorities report that some 31,000 designated dwellings were sold by public sector bodies to people qualifying for assistance under the housing defects scheme.