HC Deb 01 April 1981 vol 2 cc104-5W
28. Mr. Durant

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he is taking to ensure that council tenants of those councils which are deliberately delaying the sale of council houses will be able to exercise their right to buy.

Mr. Stanley

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 4 March.[Vol. 1,000, c. 268.] Since then the department has also taken up formally with the following authorities their rate of progress in implementing the right to buy: Barnsley, Carlisle, Crawley, Hackney, Leicester, Lewisham, Middlesborough, Thamesdown, Wakefield, Walsall and Waltham Forest.

29. Dr. Mawhinney

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many council houses have been sold since May 1979.

Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg

124,000 sales took place in Great Britain between April 1979 and December 1980.

34. Mr. Heddle

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what measures his Department has so far taken to ensure that the rights of council tenants who will have served right-to-buy forms—RTB 1—before the relevant date of 3 April under the Housing Act 1980 are protected.

Mr. Stanley

The statutory background is set out in the answer I gave to my hon. Friend on March 12.—[Vol. 1000, c. 412.] The Housing Act itself protects the right of all secure tenants with the right to buy, who have served a valid notice by April 3 1981, to purchase their home at a price based on its valuation as at 8 August 1980.