§ Mr. Hurdasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many houses and flats have been sold by the Property Services Agency in the last year; what proportions of the total were brought by local authority and by private purchasers; and what was the average length of time between the property being declared surplus to Government requirements and the completion of sale.
§ Mr. MarksThe Property Services Agency offers residential properties to local authorities as soon as they are declared surplus, together with the facility for taking immediate possession subject to an undertaking to complete the purchase in due course.
In the year ending 31st October 1976 the PSA sold 869 houses and flats; of these 758 were purchased by local authorities and the remainder by private purchasers. The average length of time between a property being declared surplus to Government requirements and the granting of early possession or the completion of sale was 20 months.
§ Mr. Hurdasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many houses and flats surplus to Government requirements are now held by the Property Services Agency; and how many of these are empty.
§ Mr. MarksThe Property Services Agency holds 3,447 houses and flats surplus to Government requirements in the United Kingdom. Of these 2,058 are empty, and most of them are on offer to local authorities.