§ Mr. BurdenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list for each local authority area(a) the number of empty homes and (b) the proportion of empty homes in (i) the private sector, (ii) the local authority sector and (iii) the housing association sector. [15686]
§ Mr. Robert B. JonesLocal authorities in England report the numbers of their own dwellings that are vacant at 1 April on their annual housing investment programme—HIP1—return. The latest figures for individual local authorities can be found in section A of the "1994 HIP1 All Items Print", a copy of which is in the Library; figures are given separately for vacant dwellings inside and outside the authority's area.
Housing associations report the numbers of their own dwellings vacant at 31 March on their annual HAR10/1 return. I have today placed in the Library a table giving the reported numbers of vacant housing association dwellings in each local authority area. The listed figures 466W are incomplete as there are an estimated 700 vacant dwellings in England—3 per cent. of vacant dwellings—for which an analysis by district is not available.
In addition to providing information on those of their own dwellings that are vacant, local authorities are also asked to provide estimates of the number of private sector and other public sector vacant dwellings in their area on their annual HIP1 returns. The reported information for each local authority can also be found in section A of the "1994 HIP1 All Items Print".
There are doubts about the quality of some of the estimates of these vacants provided by authorities. Information from the 1991 English house condition survey suggests that the England total for the private sector may be an over-estimate, and data from central Government Departments on their own vacant dwellings, for which no geographical breakdown is readily available, indicate that there is under-reporting of public sector vacant dwellings.