§ Mr. Topeasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made on the latest available information of the number of empty houses in each of the London boroughs; and what percentage of the total number of properties in each borough these figures represent.
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§ Mr. ChannonComplete information relating to individual London boroughs is not available. A recent survey by the London Housing Office of the London Boroughs Association shows that in the private sector, at April 1973, a total of 51,365 dwellings had been vacant for three months or more; this represents approximately 2½ per cent, of the total stock. The figures for boroughs are as follows:
London Borough Total empty over 3 months City of London (est.) 38 Barking 191 Barnet 2,870 Bexley (est.) 426 Brent (est.) 1,337 Bromley (est.) 1,467 Camden 2,384 Croydon 1,536 Ealing 1,396 Enfield 1,718 Greenwich 1,270 Hackney (est.) 1,102 Hammersmith 1,791 Haringey 1,704 Harrow (est.) 639 Havering 449 Hillingdon 589 Hounslow 981 Islington 1,108 Kensington & Chelsea 3,499 Kingston-upon-Thames 625 Lambeth 1,892 Lewisham (est.) 1,926 Merton 1,073 Newham 807 Redbridge 1,060 Richmond-upon-Thames 1,145 Southwark 1,154 Sutton 842 Tower Hamlets 381 Waltham Forest 1,231 Wandsworth 1,684 Westminster 11,050 This survey did not cover local authority dwellings but an estimate was made which suggests that, on average, the vacancy level varied between 0.4 per cent, and 1 per cent. of the total stock in each borough.