§ Mr. Bob Dunnasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the names of those local authorities which have refused to permit their tenants to buy their council homes.
§ Mr. StanleyThe London borough of Greenwich and Harlow district council resolved not to implement the right to buy but, following correspondence with the Department, both councils subsequently rescinded their resolutions. Leicester city council has resolved not to complete sales under the right to buy while the current standstill on housing expenditure continues. I hope the council will reconsider very shortly. Complaints of delay in processing right to buy applications are being pursued with the authorities concerned.
§ Mr. Bob Dunnasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the number of council houses sold to sitting tenants by each of the local authorities in Kent in each of the last 10 years prior to and including 1980.
§ Mr. StanleySeparate figures on the number of sales to sitting tenants, as opposed to all sales of existing dwellings, were not collected until the final quarter of 1980; results of these returns are not yet available. Reported sales of existing dwellings in each authority in Kent are published in Local Housing Statistics; the figures for 1974 to 1979 are in issues 33, 37, 41, 45, 49 and 53. Information for earlier years relate to local authorities in existence prior to the local government reorganisation and are not comparable. Available information for 1980 is as follows:
Reported sales of existing dwellings by local authorities Jan-Sept 1980 Ashford 262P Canterbury 194 Dartford 367 Dover 64 Gillingham 179 Maidstone 481 Rochester upon Medway 730P Sevenoaks 187 Shepway 84 Swale 177 Thanet 159 Tonbridge and Malling 191P Tunbridge wells 249 Gravesham have not as yet provided sales figures for the period P=Provisional