§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the projected level of average local authority rents in(a) England and Wales and (b) Greater London arising from the proposed increases of (i) one per cent. next year and (ii) two per cent. in the following two years; and what estimate he has made of the level of average local authority rents (1) as a proportion of registered social landlord rents and (2) as a proportion of average eligible rents in the private sector. [53574]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe provision for Housing Revenue Account Subsidy announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 14 July 1998,Official Report, columns 187–94, allows for a real increase in local authority rents in England of one per cent. in 1999–2000 and of two per cent. in each of the following two years. Actual rent increases may differ from these guideline rent increases used in the calculation of Housing Revenue Account Subsidy.
We will be consulting individual local authorities on their guideline rent increases for 1999–2000 in the autumn. Local authorities will not have all the information they need to set their rents for 1999–2000 until the beginning of 1999.
Data on average weekly rents for local authority, registered social landlord and private sector tenants for 1996–97 are set out in the table. The figures are not directly comparable as they take no account of differences in size and quality of accommodation.
£ England London Local authority 40.17 53.11 Registered social landlord1 46.74 53.12 Privately rented 77 2— 1 Rents at 31 March 1997 2 The Survey of English Housing sample size is not lare enough to produce estimates for London for individual financial years. Combined data for 1995–96 and 1996–97 give an average private sector rent of £111 for London (£for England as a whole). Sources:
Local authority—Housing Subsidy Claim forms; Registered social landlords—Housing Corporation HAR 10/1 return; Privately rented—Survey of English Housing (like all estimates from sample surveys, these figures are subject to sampling variability)