HC Deb 04 February 1987 vol 109 cc718-9W
22. Mr. Flannery

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many council houses were completed in each successive year from 1979 to 1986 inclusive.

Mr. John Patten

The figures for England for the years 1979 to 1985 are as follows:

Number
1979 74,000
1980 74,000
1981 55,000
1982 31,000
1983 30,000
1984 29,000
1985 23,000

The provisional number of completions in January to November last year is 17,000.

36. Mr. Andrew MacKay

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the number of empty council-owned dwellings in London.

Mr. Tracey

Figures on vacant council dwellings were provided by local authorities in their housing investment programme returns and the totals appear in column A99 of the "HIP1 (1986) all items print", which is in the Library.

42. Mr. Hayward

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will discuss with local government organisations the opportunities for improvements to council housing offered by his Department's urban housing renewal unit.

Mr. John Patten

Yes. I have already had discussions with representatives of the local authority associations—most recently at a meeting with them on 19 January. At that meeting I offered further discussions between officials about the opportunities being opened up by estate action (as the urban housing renewal unit is now known) for improving council housing. Members of the estate action team are in constant touch with individual local authorities; so far over 130 local authorities have had detailed discussions and visits from estate action.