§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the total number of dwellings sold by Leicester city council in 1984, and for each of the past four years; if he will give the total figure for England for each of the same years; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir George YoungFollowing are the numbers of dwelling sales, right to buy and voluntary, reported by Leicester city council in each calendar year from 1980 and the corresponding estimates for all English local authorities.
Leicester England 1980 76 79,600 1981 224 94,200 1982 1,469 186,700 1983 1,455 134,900 1984 492 99,400 I am pleased that more than 3,700 homes have been bought in this way and I look forward to many more such purchases as tenants continue to exercise the rights conferred on them by Parliament.
§ Mr. John Fraserasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to privatise pubicly owned housing in inner city areas.
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§ Mr. GowNo., but we are encouraging local authorities to adopt a more imaginative range of solutions to the problems of their run-down estates, including disposal to private trusts or developers, and initiatives for the better management of local authority estates, such as the Priority Estates project. My right hon. Friend announced on 26 February 1985, at column 99, that he was setting up the urban housing renewal unit within the Department for this purpose. The unit will be launched shortly.
Closer partnership between the public and private sectors is in the best interests of those who live in the public sector.