§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, in view of the fact that he stated in a reply to a Question by the hon. Member for Horsham and Crawley (Mr. Hordern) on 24th March 1977 how many empty houses of various types there were in the London boroughs of Wandsworth, Lewisham and Lambeth, he will give similar figures on empty houses derelict or not in the rest of the London boroughs.
§ Mr. FreesonTo attempt to obtain this information for all 32 London boroughs would require disproportionate use of the time of the Department and the boroughs, not all of which would necessarily have it readily available on a consistent basis. But the Department's relets inquiry for 1975 showed that in Greater London as a whole, about 1 per cent.—about 8,000—of local authority housing revenue account dwellings were vacant and available for letting and about 2 per cent.—about 16,000—were vacant for modernisation, repair or conversion and, therefore, not available for letting on 31st December that year.
I will consider the possibility of improvements in the availability of information on empty dwellings.