§ 43. Mr. Fallonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many council houses are empty in the northern region; and how many have been empty for more than six months.
§ Sir George YoungIn their housing investment programme returns, local authorities in the northern region reported that 11,456 of their dwellings within their own areas were vacant on 1 April 1985; of these 10,725 belonged to the authorities in the northern housing region and 731 to those in Cumbria. Information is not collected on the numbers vacant more than six months, but 2,248 of the dwellings, of which 38 were in Cumbria, had been vacant for more than a year. In April 1985, Washington new town owned 308 dwellings that were vacant.