HC Deb 09 February 1981 vol 998 cc280-1W
Mr. Skeet

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) to what extent it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government to exclude listed buildings from those council houses a tenant has the right to buy;

(2) how many council houses in Bedfordshire are listed buildings.

Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg

The Housing Act 1980 does not provide for listed buildings to be excluded from the right to buy. Where local authorities sell such buildings they have the protection of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, which makes it a criminal offence to alter listed buildings in any way which would affect their special architectural or historic interest without the written consent of the local planning authority or the Secretary of State. The information about the number of council houses which are listed buildings is not available in my Department.

Mr. Frank R. White

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authority houses were sold in each year from 1974 to the latest available date within the Bury metropolitan district housing authority.

Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg

Figures of reported sales of dwellings by Bury metropolitan district housing authority, for 1974 to 1979, are published in Local Housing Statistics issues 33, 37, 41, 45, 49 and 53. In 1980 sales of 461 dwellings were reported.

Mr. Kaufman

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if it remains his assumption, Official Report, 19 December, c. 442, that 120,000 council house sales under chapter I of the Housing Act 1980 will be completed in the year 1981–82.

Mr. Heseltine

Yes, though the assumption relates to sales under all powers, not simply those under the Housing Act 1980.

Mr. Kaufman

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of building society funding for the total of 120,000 houses, assumed to be sold under chapter I of the Housing Act 1980 for the year 1981–82 he assumes for his estimate of £212.6 million capital receipts from such sales, Official Report, 19 December, c. 441–42.

Mr. Heseltine

The estimate assumes that immediate cash payments by purchasers, including those financed by private sector mortgages, will amount to one-third of the total capital value of sales after discount.