§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of state for the Environment what is the most reliable estimate available to him of the number of empty dwellings at present in the private and public sectors ; and whether he is able to break this down into London, other inner-city areas, other metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergLocal authorities, in their housing investment programme (HIP) returns, have estimated the following numbers of vacant dwellings :
VACANT DWELLINGS, APRIL 1979: ENGLAND Thousands Public sector* Privaite sector Total London 50 71 121 Other Metropolitan areas 44 102 146 Non-Metropolitan areas 59 312 371 England 153 485 638 * Includes local authorities, new town, housing associations, government departments ' forces 'accommodation etc. Estimates for individual local authorities are available on their HIP returns, copies of which are in the Library.
Unrebated rents at Unrebated rent as a April 1979 prices (£)* percentage of earnings † March 1968 May 1973 April 1979 March 1968 May 1973 April 979 Northern 4.93 6.85 5.62 6.7 7.4 5.7 Yorkshire and Humberside 5.33 6.65 5.45 7.3 7.4 5.7 North-Western 5.53 7.36 6.05 7.3 7.y 6.3 East Midlands 5.09 6.90 5.76 6.8 7.6 6.1 West Midlands 6.43 7.62 6.18 7.9 7.9 6.5 East Anglia 5.83 7.52 6.14 8.2 8.3 6.4 South-East 7.81 9.44 7.42 9.7 9.7 7.3 South-Western 6.60 8.08 6.47 9.2 9.0 7.1 Wales 6.33 7.50 6.32 8.2 8.0 6.6 * Figures of unrebated rents derived from CIPFA rent returns and inflated by the monthly Retail Price Index (for United Kingdom). † Unrebated rents as a proportion of regional average male manual full-time earnings for October of each year. Regional estimates of council house rents for earlier years are not available.