§ Mr. Evennettasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what changes are to be made in the operation of the tenants' exchange scheme.
§ Sir George YoungThe tenants' exchange scheme was extended to Scotland on 1 June 1984 and now operates throughout the United Kingdom. In the light of experience since the scheme was first introduced in England and Wales in 1982, and following consultation with the local authority associations and other bodies, certain operational changes have been made to coincide with the extension. The main changes are that, to help keep the scheme's lists more up to date, the registration period, during which tenants remain on these lists, is being reduced from one year to six months; tenants will be sent a letter inviting renewal of their registration about a month before it is due to expire. The space on the scheme's monthly lists for a tenant's comments will be doubled so that tenants may include information about the type of property and the area to which they want to move, in addition to further details about their present homes.
These and other minor improvements in the scheme are intended to make it more useful to tenants and, together with the right to exchange provided for in the Housing and Building Control Bill, to enable tenants to move to a different council's area more easily.