§ Mr. Ennalsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the record of local authorities in implementing the Housing Act 1980; and how Norwich compares with other authorities.
§ Mr. Stanley[pursuant to his reply, 9 November 1981, c. 31]: The Department collects quarterly from each English housing authority statistics relating to chapter 1 of part I of the Housing Act 1980 on
- (a) the number of RTBI claims received;
- (b) the number of right to buy claims admitted;
- (c) the number of right to buy sales completed;
- (d) the number of right to buy sales completed with a council mortgage.
In addition, monthly information is being provided by a limited number of authorities whose progress in implementing the right to buy has been taken up by the Department. The provisional data available from these sources for the nine months, October 1980 to June 1981, have today been placed in the Library. A number of authorities are conducting sales of council houses through their established voluntary arrangements, and a small or 208W nil return under the right to buy may not therefore represent the total number of sales in progress in a given authority.
§ Mr. Ennalsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will now list the local housing authorities which are issuing section 10 notices under the Housing Act 1980 at a rate less than 60 a month.
§ Mr. Stanley[pursuant to his reply, 9 November 1981, c. 31]: The Department does not collect monthly figures from local housing authorities generally on the section 10 notices which they have issued. This information is, however, sought from a limited number of authorities whose progress in implementing the right to buy has been taken up by the Department. Of the authorities which had by 12 November provided information for the month of October, the following authorities reported issuing less than 60 section 10 notices in that month—Blyth Valley, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Chester-le-Street, Tower Hamlets and Watford.
In relation to the position of tenants seeking to excercise the right to buy, the significance of the rate of progress in issuing section 10 notices in a given month has to be assessed in the light of the number of tenants whose right to buy has so far been admitted by the authority concerned and the date by which all these tenants can expect to receive their section 10 notices.
§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will now bring up to date the statistics in the document on council house sales placed in the Library in connection with the written reply to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Ardwick, on 9 July 1981, Official Report, columns 212–13.
§ Mr. Stanley[pursuant to his answer,10 November 1981, c. 53–54]: I refer the right hon. Member to the reply that I have given to the right hon. Member for Norwich, North (Mr. Ennals) today.