HC Deb 06 May 1986 vol 97 cc67-8W
Mr. Deakins

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many houses have been sold to sitting tenants by local authorities in each of the last 10 years; what was the average receipt to the authorities for each house sold; what was the average cost of (a) building new houses (b) rehabilitating old houses for local authorities in each year, and how many new houses and rehabilitated houses respectively he estimates local authorities could have built with the moneys available to them from the receipts of council house sales.

Sir George Young

[pursuant to his reply, 30 April 1986, c. 413]: The available information is given in the table. There are other forms of housing expenditure that local authorities undertake, in addition to those mentioned. Therefore, my Department has not made the estimates requested.

Local Authorities: England (a) Sales of dwellings and costs of new building Sales*
Dwellings Initial receipts Average initial receipt Average construction cost
£ million £ £
1976 5,700 10.5 1,800 7,200
1977 12,500 29.5 2,400 8,100
1978 29,000 77.8 2,700 9,100
1979 40,500 103.2 2,500 10,600
1980 79,600 203.9 2,600 12,800
1981 94,200 375.1 4,000 13,400
1982 186,700 914.8 4,900 14,500
1983 132,600 975.7 7,400 15,300
1984 97,800 806.8 8,200 16,400
1985|| 87,800 859.9 9,800 16,900
* All sales including sales of vacant dwellings. Initial receipts for 1976 to 1978 have been estimated from financial year data.

Cost, at tender stage, of substructure and superstructure construction. Average is calculated over all dwellings each year. not adjusted for mix of dwellings type. GLC figures are included from 1980 only. New town dwellings are included.

Includes Wales.

Provisional.

(b) Renovations of dwellings: work completed*
Conversion Improvement
Dwellings Cost Average cost Dwellings Cost Average cost
£ million £ £ million £
1975–76 2,900 22.8 7,900 33,600 99.4 3,000
1976–77 5,000 31.7 6,400 33,300 79.5 2,400
1977–78 3,900 29.6 7,700 43,200 113.0 2,600
1978–79 5,300 53.9 10,200 53,300 180.7 3,400
1979–80 4,100 47.4 11,700 80,000 333.1 4,200
1980–81 4,900 65.9 13,600 61,900 357.0 5,800
1981–82 4,300 61.1 14,200 49,200 306.9 6,200
1982–83 2,400 n.a. n.a. 61,900 n.a. n.a.
1983–84 2,300 28.1 12,200 82,200 373.6 4,500
1984–85 1,800 27.6 15,100 92,700 385.3 4,200
* Work approved up to December 1977. Work completed from January 1978.