§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the current number of houses or flats without (a) an indoor lavatory and (b) an indoor bathroom or shower; how many of these homes are in the private sector and the public sector, respectively; and by what date such facilities might be expected to be universally available, assuming present rates of improvement progress.
§ Mr. StanleyThe available information from the 1976 English house condition survey is as follows:
England Thousand dwellings Amenity lacked Rented from local authority or new town Other (including housing associations and vacant dwellings All dwellings WC inside dwelling 157 926 1,083 Bath or shower in a bathroom 45 755 800 This meant that at that time 6.3 per cent. of dwellings in England were without an inside water closet and 4.7 per 531W cent. without a fixed bath in a bathroom. The equivalent figures at the time of the 1971 house condition survey were 11.5 per cent. and 9.2 per cent., respectively. An assessment as to how close we are to these amenities being universally available can only be made in the light of the new English house condition survey to be carried out later this year.
§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will estimate the cost to public funds of instituting a programme to provide every home in England and Wales, whose occupants wish it, with an indoor lavatory and an indoor bathroom or shower by the end of 1986, to be financed by a specially high rate of improvement grant of 90 per cent., it being understood that this rate would only be paid if the work were completed by 31 December 1986, following which the higher level of grant would not be available.
§ Mr. StanleyIt is not possible to provide such an estimate until the information is available from this year's house condition surveys in England and Wales on the number of homes currently without lavatories and bathrooms. Intermediate grants towards the cost of installing these amenities are already available at the rate of 75 per cent., or 90 per cent. in cases of hardship, and these grants are mandatory.