§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions which local authorities operate registration schemes for houses in multiple occupation; how many properties are on the list; and what proportion are estimated to be high risk. [127007]
§ Mr. MullinThe latest information my Department has on such schemes, based on local authority returns made in July 1999, indicated that 81 authorities, as listed, had schemes, and had registered approximately 10,000 houses in multiple occupation in the private rented sector. A number of these schemes, notably in London boroughs, are ward-based, although the majority are authority-wide
Darlington, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Stockton-on-Tees, North Tyneside, Barnsley, Calderdale, East Riding of Yorkshire, Harrogate, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Rotherham, Scarborough, York, Derby, Kettering, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, South Kesteven, Basildon, Cambridge, Colchester, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Luton, Mid Bedfordshire, North Norfolk, Peterborough, South Norfolk, St. Albans, Tendring, Watford, Waveney, Barking and Dagenham, Bromley, Brent, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Hillingdon, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewisham, Newham, Islington, Hounslow, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Chiltern, Dover, Gravesham, Canterbury, Guildford, Portsmouth, Rushmoor, Southampton, Thanet, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cheltenham, Mid Devon, North Somerset, Torbay, West Devon, Weymouth and Portland, Birmingham, Coventry, Redditch, Wyre Forest, Blackpool, Bury, Carlisle, Chester, Lancaster, Preston, Warrington, West Lancashire, Wirral.Authorities are not required to notify new schemes to my Department, but we are aware of several in the past year, including:
Kingston-upon-Hull, Sheffield, Bexley, Harrow, Lambeth, Southwark, Eastbourne, North Warwickshire, Brighton and Hove, Doncaster, Oxford, Herefordshire.All the schemes are based upon my Department's 1997 model, which exempts certain lower-risk categories in the private rented sector, including houses occupied by: persons who form only two households; no more than four persons who form more than two households; no more than three persons in addition to the responsible person and any other member of their household.