§ Mr. Heddleasked the the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the local authorities with which his Department is currently in contact about delays in the performance of the right-to-buy provisions of the Housing Act 1980; and if he will indicate with which local authorities he has been in constant contact about this matter for the last 12 months.
§ Sir George YoungThe authorities with which my Department is currently in formal contact about right-to-buy progress are as follows:
Ashfield* Newbury Aylesbury Vale Newham* Barnet North Hertfordshire Barnsley* North-West Leicestershire* Barrow Norwich* Brent* Nottingham* Brentwood Oldham Broadland Oxford Camden* Poole Caradon Reading Cherwell Richmond-upon-Thames Chiltern Rochdale City of London Rother Dacorum St. Albans Derby* St. Helens* Ellesmere Port and Neston* Sedgemoor Enfield Sheffield* Fylde Slough Gateshead* Southampton Greater London Council* South Derbyshire Greenwich* South Northamptonshire Hackney* South Tyneside Hammersmith and Fulham* Southwark* Haringey* Stevenage* Harlow* Stroud Hertsmere Surrey Heath High Peak Sutton Hillingdon Three Rivers Hounslow* Tower Hamlets* Ipswich* Trafford Islington* Wakefield* Kensington and Chelsea Waltham Forest* Kingston upon Hull* Wansbeck Lambeth* Wandsworth Leeds* Watford* Lewisham* Westminster Liverpool* Woking Manchester* Wolverhampton* Mid Bedfordshire Worcester Mid Devon Wychavon* Mid Suffolk Wyre Mole Valley * Those authorities with which there has been constant contact about progress in implementing the right-to-buy over the last 12 months. The following authorities have also been requested to provide information on current right-to-buy progress, but in a number of cases this is intended merely to update or clarify the position. Some of the authorities sell mainly under voluntary arrangements.
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Alnwick Eden Basildon Exeter Blackburn Forest of Dean Bournemouth Gillingham Broxbourne Hart Bury Lichfield Canterbury Maidstone Chester Mid Sussex Chorley North Dorset Dartford North Warwickshire
Pendle Swale Redditch Waverley Restormel West Oxfordshire Rossendale Wimborne Rushcliffe Windsor and Maidenhead Shepway Worthing Stafford Wyre Forest South Oxfirdshire
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authorities have published leaflets on the right to buy seeking to dissuade public sector tenants from purchasing their council houses; and what guidance he is giving to local authorities about the publicity material they distribute about the right to buy.
§ Sir George YoungI am aware that some local authorities have produced leaflets designed to put off tenants who are considering exercising their right to buy, but I do not know how many. When such booklets come to my notice significant inaccuracies are normally taken up with the authority concerned.