§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will 393W list the numbers of houses estimated to be in need of major repairs for each year from 1970 to 1979; and, in each case, what proportion were in private or public ownership.
§ Mr. StanleyThere is no single definition of major repair, and information is
DWELLINGS* IN NEED OF REPAIRS COSTING MORE THAN £1,000 (1976 PRICES): ENGLAND: 1971 AND 1976 Local Authority/New Towns Other Tenures‡ All Dwellings Thousands of dwellings Percent. Thousands of dwellings Percent. Thousands of dwellings Percent. 1971 … … … 130 (7) 1,750 (93) 1,880 (100) 1976 … … … 260 (12) 1,970 (88) 2,240 (100) Source: English House Condition Surveys, 1971 and 1976 * The estimates are based on samples of dwellings and are therefore subject to sampling error. † Repair costs of £1,000 at 1976 prices are broadly equivalent to costs of £1,500 at 1979 prices. ‡"Other" tenures include housing association owned, owner-occupied, privately rented and vacant dwellings.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will ensure that adequate resources are made available to private owners and local authorities to carry out major repairs to their houses; and if he will make changes to the improvement grant system to try to reduce the numbers of properties in need of major renovation.
§ Mr. StanleyIt will in future be a matter for each local authority to decide how much of its housing capital expenditure allocation to use to repair its existing housing stock. As far as the private sector is concerned, the Housing Bill includes provisions extending the availability of repair grants for major repairs to older housing. The Bill also includes, in clauses 94–95 and schedule 9, a number of other changes to the grant system designed to make it more effective in tackling the problem to which the hon. Member refers.