§ Mr. Corbettasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the latest estimate of the number of domestic residences (a) privately owned and (b) publicly owned which have been unoccupied for three months, six months, 12 months and two years in England and Wales.
§ Mr. ArmstrongThe most recent comprehensive estimate of the number of empty dwellings is provided by the 1971 Census, which recorded 675, 880 dwellings in England and Wales, about 3.9 per cent. of the total housing stock, as "vacant on Census night". Information about vacant council dwellings in England and Wales is obtained annually from the Department's relets enquiries. The provisional results for 1975 show that on 31st December about one-half of 1 per cent. of local authority housing revenue account dwellings, approximately 25,000, were vacant and available for letting, and about a further three-quarters of 1 per cent., approximately 37,000, were vacant for modernisation, repair or conversion. There is no equivalent annual survey of empty houses in private ownership. Neither the 1971 Census information nor that in the annual relets enquiries indicate how long dwellings had been empty.