Mr. Ted Fletcherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the local authorities that have been given stress area status.
§ Mr. FreesonNo further authorities have been added to those I referred to in the reply I gave to my hon. Friend on Tuesday 18th January.—[Vol. 924, c.97.]
Mr. Ted Fletcherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement as to the criteria upon which he has assessed some local authorities for stress area status.
§ Mr. FreesonThe list of stress authorities was drawn up partially on objective data from the 1971 census about overcrowding, which gives some indication of housing shortage, and lack of bathrooms, which is a rough measure of the quality of the stock. Both items are indicative of the need to increase the stock but may also yield to other measures. For this reason, and also to update this information, we were guided by additional information from our regional offices about housebuilding performance since 1971 and housing needs. Since the original list was published we have examined claims from a further 45 local authorities seeking stress status and these claims were evaluated on a similar basis. Thirteen of these authorities were found to have a sufficiently strong claim and have been added to the list.