§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will state the most recent figure for empty council properties, listing how many of these have been vacant for over 12 months;
(2) if he will list for each local authority the number of empty council-owned fiats, houses and maisonettes, in each of the last five years.
§ Sir George YoungInformation about vacant housing is collected in English local authorities' annual housing investment programme returns: copies for each of the years 1979 to 1983 are available in the Library.
For the most recent estimates of local authorities' vacant housing, I refer my hon. Friend to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Staffordshire (Mr. Heddle) on 18 January, at column 216.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will issue a circular advising local authorities and other public bodies to apply shorthold schemes and temporary lettings for all their empty housing units.
§ Sir George YoungThe Department's report "Reducing the Number of Empty Dwellings" which was sent to all English housing authorities in 1981 contains a 289W range of advice on measures which public sector landlords can adopt to make the best use of their vacant housing stock, including advice on short-term lettings. A copy is in the Library.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will estimate the number of council housing units that will remain empty in 1984 and at what loss of revenue; how many new units each local authority intends to build and at what cost.
§ Sir George YoungFigures for vacant dwellings in England as at 1 April 1983 were provided in local authorities' housing investment programme submissions last year. Comparable figures for 1 April 1984 will not be available until the autumn.
The loss of rental revenue on local authorities' empty dwellings in 1983–84 is estimated at about £78 million.
In their 1983 HIP submissions, local authorities expected 34,900 new housing completions in 1984–85, at a total cost, including land purchase and construction, of about £1,150 million.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to keep a register of empty housing units owned by local authorities together with the reasons why they are vacant.
§ Sir George YoungLocal authorities with empty dwellings which had been empty for more than a year on 1 April 1983 were asked to provide in their HIP returns for 1984–85 details of such dwellings and to indicate their intentions for bringing them back into use. This information was taken into account in fixing HIP allocations for individual authorities for the forthcoming year.