§ Mr. Spearingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, pursuant to his reply, Official Report, column 527, 12 March, he will now state the names of any district health authority in England which has taken legal action to require staff to quit accommodation owned by them, or which has withdrawn any such application.
§ Mr. NewtonOn 23 May 1986 at columns 693–696, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mr. Hayhoe) repeated the assurance that nobody would be made homeless as a result of the rationalisation of National Health Service residential accommodation. He went on to say that if other circumstances arose which made it necessary for an authority to consider giving notice to quit, it must first seek the Department's approval. A circular adivsing health authorities of these arrangements was issued in June 1986.
In the four months since these arrangements were introduced, the Department has agreed eviction in 11 cases, in the following health authorities: Hounslow and Spelthorne, Barking Havering and Brentwood, Bloomsbury (three cases), Kingston and Esher, North-West Surrey (three cases), Winchester and Solihull.
Over the same period, the Department has agreed that notices to quit may be issued in 63 cases as a means of assisting the tenant to secure local authority housing, on condition that eviction should not proceed unless and until that alternative accommodation is available. The health authorities concerned were: Hampstead, Barnet, North-West Hertfordshire, Riverside (four cases), Brent, Paddingon and North Kensington (14 cases), Bloomsbury (five cases), Enfield, North-East Essex, Croydon, Mid Surrey (three cases), North-West Surrey (10 cases), Kingston and Esher, South-West Surrey, East Surrey (two cases), Southampton and South-West Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Basingstoke and North Hampshire, Rugby and Stockport.