§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many houses owned by the Mid Wales Development Agency, the Welsh Development Agency and local authorities are presently standing empty; what is the amount of rent thereby lost; and what plans he has to reduce the number of empty properties.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesNo dwellings owned by the Welsh Development Agency are currently vacant. The number of 259W vacant dwellings owned by local authorities and the Mid Wales Development Agency are given in the following table:
Vacant dwellings Local authorities1 2,034 Development board for rural Wales2 50 1At 1 April 1992. 2At 28 February 1993. The rent lost by local authorities through void dwellings in the week ending 4 April 1992 was £60,000. Plans to reduce the number of local authorities' vacant dwellings are outlined in the "Agenda for Action for Housing in Wales". The document specifies a target that, for each local authority, the number of vacant dwellings should represent no more than 2 per cent. of its stock by 1993–94, and by 1996–97 it should be no higher than the figure achieved by the upper quartile of authorities in 1992–93.