§ Mr. SoleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the total value of dwellings owned by local authorities calculated on the basis of 1988–89 right-to-buy sales and the total loan debt outstanding on these local authority dwellings.
§ Mr. HowardThe Government do not possess figures on the value of dwellings in local authority ownership. Under part VI of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, in determining housing revenue account subsidy, the Secretary of State may infer aggregate values of houses and other property within local authorities' housing revenue account from the average values of any of the houses and other property they have disposed of. The Department of the Environment is currently consulting local housing authorities in England on the figures for the subsidy determination for 1990–91.
The total outstanding loan debt on dwellings in local authority ownership for 1988–89 as reported to the Department of the Environment by local authorities was £23.1 billion.