HC Deb 21 January 1988 vol 125 cc825-6W
Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many households were recorded on local authority housing waiting lists on 1 April 1987 in England as a whole and for each region of England.

Mr. Waldegrave

The information provided by local authorities in their 1987 housing investment programme returns is as follows:

Households on local authority waiting lists, April 1987
Standard region Thousands
North 112
Yorkshire and Humberside 160
East Midlands 110
East Anglia 43
Greater London 264
Rest of South East 200
South West 87
West Midlands 132
North West 181
England 1,289

Local authorities' criteria for inclusion of names on the waiting lists are not uniform and the frequency of reviewing the lists varies.

Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many households were housed by local authorities from their waiting lists through allocation procedures(a) during 1983–84, (b) during 1984–85, (c) during 1985–86 and (d) during 1986–87, for England as a whole and for each region of England.

Mr. Waldegrave

In their annual housing investment programme returns local authorities report the number of dwellings which have been let on secure tenancies to households under normal waiting list allocation procedures. The information is as follows:

New secure tenants housed from waiting lists
Thousands
1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87
Standard region
North 17.4 18.3 19.0 18.5
Yorkshire and Humberside 24.4 23.5 25.9 25.6
East Midlands 17.3 17.5 16.1 16.0
East Anglia 5.6 5.4 4.8 4.2
Greater London 13.6 10.9 10.7 9.3
Rest of South East 22.0 21.4 20.2 18.5
South West 10.1 9.8 9.2 9.0
West Midlands 20.6 19.1 18.4 18.5
North West 30.1 30.5 29.1 29.8
England 161.0 156.4 153.2 149.4