HC Deb 26 January 1983 vol 35 cc461-2W
29. Mr. Spriggs

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to the reply to the hon. Member for St. Helens on 8 December, Official Report, c. 844, if he will publish in the Official Report the names of those local government councils which have delegated their functions to officials, with a view to speedier processing of applications for council house sales.

Mr. Stanley

The Department does not collect this information generally. It is clear, however, from discussions on the right-to-buy between the Department and individual authorities that some councils have delegated decision taking on individual applications to their officers within policies laid down by the council.

Mr. Greenway

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many council homes have been sold by the London borough of Ealing since May 1979; and if he will make a statement.

Sir George Young

I refer my hon. Friend to the table showing dwelling sales from 1 April 1979 to 30 September 1982 reported by local authorities, placed in the Library following the reply my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Construction gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Reading, North (Mr. Durant) on 25 January 1983.

Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to the reply to the hon. Member for Stockport, North on 8 December 1982, Official Report, column 554, whether the figure of 300,000 refers to total sales to right-to-buy applicants in the period concerned or to those applicants who used local authority mortgages; if 300,000 represents total sales, how many of these involved local authority mortgages; whether any figures are available for repossession by building societies for right-to-buy applicants during the period in question; and whether the 1,000 repossessions refer to local authority repossessions only.

Sir George Young

The figure of 300,000 is an estimate of the local authority mortgages outstanding at 31 March 1982 on former council dwellings sold in England at any time, whether under the right-to-buy or other arrangements. Adding mortgages outstanding on private dwellings on which local authorities had made loans for purchase or improvement, the overall total was then about three-quarters of a million.

The estimate of 1,000 is of dwellings repossessed by these authorities or returned to their ownership durng 1981–82; former council dwellings are not reported separately from private dwellings. Information about repossessions of former council dwellings by building societies or other lending bodies is not available.