Housing (Hansard, 8 February 1993)

§ Dr. Lynne Jones
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what evidence he has of the extent of overcrowding in(a) owner-occupied property and (b) low-cost home ownership schemes.

§ Mr. Baldry
Current information is available from surveys relating measures of space to household size and composition, but this has no statutory force.
The most recent figures available come from the 1991 labour force survey housing trailer which uses a criterion, widely used in surveys, of one bedroom for:

— each married couple;

— any other person aged 21 or over;

— each adolescent aged 10 to 20 or pair of adolescents if of the same sex; and

— each pair of children under 10

The LFS housing trailer shows that in 1991 an estimated 3 per cent. of owner-occupier households in England had fewer bedrooms than indicated by this criterion.
No reliable information is available separately on overcrowding of households in low-cost home ownership schemes.

§ Mr. Cann
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what changes there have been in the proposed allocation of moneys held back from the scheme to allow housing associations to purchase homes since his statement announcing the scheme.

§ Mr. Baldry
About £427 million of the £577 million allocated to the Housing Corporation in the autumn statement to enable housing associations in England to purchase new, empty, repossessed and second-hand homes was allocated in November to 27 selected "zoned" housing associations.
The remainder was held back in order to make further allocations reflecting the success of these housing associations in meeting the objectives of the package and to allow other associations to come forward with proposals offering exceptional value for money. Further allocations were made on 13 January; 28 "non-zoned" associations received allocations worth some £28 million.
About half the initial allocation was targeted on London and the south-east. In the second tranche this proportion was increased to three quarters, in recognition of the particular difficulties of the property market in this region.