HC Deb 11 February 2002 vol 380 c32W
Mrs. May

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the rent loss on vacant properties for each local authority with housing stock for the last year for which figures are available. [34823]

Mr. Byers

[holding answer 8 February 2002]: A table showing the rent loss on vacant properties during the financial year 2000–01 for those local authorities with housing stock on 31 March 2001 has been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Some of the criteria that need to be taken into account when comparing rent losses across local authorities include:

  1. (a) Local authorities may differ in the way they count vacancies: so whereas some may include all vacancies, even of just a day or so, others may base their calculations on long-term empties only and ignore short-term, transitional vacancies.
  2. (b) Local authorities with large stock might be expected to have higher rent losses than authorities with little stock.
  3. (c) Rent losses in an authority with high rent levels will be higher than the rent losses due to the same number of vacant days in an authority with low rents.
  4. (d) Local authorities in low demand areas may have longer void periods and therefore higher rent losses than those in areas of high demand.

Local authorities not shown in this table had no stock on 31 March 2001.