HC Deb 10 June 1988 vol 134 c731W
Mr. Redwood

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he is taking to make more land available for housing in London, so as to offer Londoners the opportunity to remain in London.

Mr. Waldegrave

The Secretary of State's strategic guidance will include guidance on the provision each borough should make in its unitary development plan to meet London's expected overall requirement for new housing in the 1990s. The guidance will be issued, following consultation, early next year.

In addition, we are appointing consultants to conduct a major study of the potential of five areas of east London for housing, mainly for middle and low-income groups.

We are maintaining the pressure on all public landowners to release their underused land for development. Since the land registers were introduced in 1981, some 4,700 acres of such land in London has been brought hack into use, much of it for housing.