Lord Winstanleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many people are currently on local authority housing waiting lists, subdivided into the major regions of the United Kingdom.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Lord Skelmersdale)The available estimates for English regions are derived from the local authorities housing investment programme returns and are as follows:
HOUSEHOLDS ON LOCAL AUTHORITY WAITING LISTS APRIL 1986 Thousands North 119 Yorkshire and Humberside 173 East Midlands 130 East Anglia 43 Greater London 272 Rest of South East 193 South West 85 West Midlands 130 North West 206 England 1,351 Local authorities' criteria for inclusion of names on the waiting lists are not uniform and the frequency of checking lists to remove names of people no longer seeking local authority housing varies. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive had 24,000 households on its waiting list at the end of October 1986. The Welsh Office does not collect these figures from authorities and the information available to the Scottish Office is neither complete nor compiled on a uniform basis.