§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those councils whose tenants have voted in favour of a new approved landlord from the private sector; what is the number and value of the properties; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir George YoungThe tenants of 30 local authorities have voted in favour of the large scale voluntary transfer of the ownership of all or most of their council's housing stock to registered housing associations. Of these, the following 23 councils have already transferred all or most of their stock:
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Number of dwellings transferred Transfer price £ million Breckland DC 6,781 60.2 Broadland DC 3,721 25.1 London Borough of Bromley 12,393 117.6 Chiltern DC 4,650 32.9 Christchurch DC 1,621 15.4 East Cambridgeshire DC 4,266 31.5
Number of dwellings transferred Transfer price £ million East Dorset DC 2,245 21.6 Hambleton DC 4,268 33.5 Medina DC 2,825 27.9 Mid Sussex DC 4,426 44.2 Newbury DC 7,053 47.0 North Bedfordshire DC 7,472 64.3 Rochester upon Medway DC 8,029 77.0 Ryedale DC 3,353 28.3 Sevenoaks DC 6,526 65.5 South Buckinghamshire DC 3,319 34.0 South Wight DC 2,119 22.8 Suffolk Coastal DC 5,272 34.0 Surrey Heath DC 2,885 28.7 Swale DC 7,352 55.2 Tonbridge and Mailing DC 6,382 54.4 Tunbridge Wells DC 5,519 58.1 West Dorset DC 5,279 40.3 The remaining seven councils listed below have not yet transferred their stock, but are expected to submit applications to do so by the end of March 1994:
Number of dwellings to be transferred Epsom and Ewell DC 1,773 Hart DC 2,504 Havant DC 3,587 Hertsmere DC 6,383 Leominster DC 1,874 Penwith DC 3,413 South Ribble DC 3,600 The transfer price for these dwellings is not yet known.
In addition, tenants in the City of Westminster and London borough of Merton have voted in favour of two tenants' choice transfers involving a total of 830 dwellings. In both of these cases the stock had a negative value, and a disposal cost was paid to the new approved landlord.
The progress of the large-scale voluntary transfer programme is very encouraging. Large-scale voluntary transfer can bring advantages to existing and future tenants, local authorities and council tax payers and I would like to see a continuing programme in future. There are also a number of tenants' choice transfers in the pipeline, four of which are well advanced.