Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his latest estimate of the value of the housing stock in the private sector; and how these figures compare with those for 1953, 1960 and 1970.
Sir George YoungThe available figures are as follows:
Privately owned dwellings, United Kingdom Net value at current replacement cost (excluding land) End of: £ billion 1953 8.2 1960 10.5 1970 21.2 1981 149.8 These estimates are derived from the perpetual inventory of fixed capital assets maintained by the central statistical office. The methods used in the perpetual inventory were described in an article in the October 1976 issue of Economic Trends which is available in the Library.
The CSO has estimated that the market value, with vacant possession and including the sites, of private sector dwellings in 1981 was about £273 billion.