HL Deb 26 July 1973 vol 344 cc2051-2WA
LORD HYLTON

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will introduce legislation to make it necessary for planning permission to be obtained before rented housing, in areas of housing shortage and housing stress, changes user and becomes owner-occupied.

BARONESS YOUNG

No; but it is the Government's intention to introduce early legislation to implement, subject to consultation, the proposals for Housing Action Areas set out in the recent White Paper,Better Homes: The Next Priorities (Cmnd. 5339), which includes the proposal to empower local authorities to require landlords selling tenanted property within the area to offer first refusal of the sale of the property to an approved housing association; or, if this was shown to be impracticable, to the local authority itself.