§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the changes to Government methodology for calculating empty or vacant council housing since 1997. [44987]
§ Mr. ByersLocal authorities are asked each year via annual Housing Investment Programme (HIP) returns to give the number of their own dwellings that are vacant at 1 April, whether they are within the authorities area or not. For 1 April 2001, rather than explicitly asking for their vacant dwellings outside their area, this figure was obtained by subtracting the number of their vacant dwellings in their area from the total number of their vacant dwellings.
There have been no other changes.