§ Mrs. SpelmanTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average number of empty homes in the United Kingdom was in each year since 1997, broken down by area. [173697]
§ Keith HillThe available information on empty residential dwellings in England by Government Office region is in the table. This data has been provided from a combination of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Housing Investment Programme return and Housing Corporation's Regulatory Statistical Return. The same information from similar sources for other parts of the United Kingdom is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
843W
Vacant dwelling stock, 1997–2003 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 North East 44,000 47,000 46,000 50,000 49,000 44,000 41,000 Yorkshire & Humberside 88,000 94,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 86,000 81,000 East Midlands 59,000 58,000 63,000 68,000 67,000 67,000 67,000 Eastern 63,000 64,000 63,000 70,000 70,000 73,000 81,000 London 101,000 101,000 105,000 105,000 114,000 114,000 122,000 South East 81,000 85,000 86,000 87,000 95,000 96,000 101,000 South West 76,000 71,000 68,000 64,000 67,000 70,000 78,000 West Midlands 73,000 77,000 79,000 80,000 77,000 78,000 73,000 North West 135,000 136,000 141,000 138,000 127,000 126,000 125,000 England 720,000 732,000 751,000 761,000 767,000 753,000 767,000 Sources: ODPM's Housing Investment Programme return and Housing Corporation's Regulatory Statistical Return. Figures presented to the nearest thousand