§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will place in the Library copies of the responses to the Housing Green Paper "Quality and Choice: A Decent Home For All" that made reference to the right to buy. [44452]
§ Ms KeebleDetails of responses to the Housing Green Paper are set out in "Quality and Choice: A decent home for all. Summary of Responses". This is already available in the Library or can be freely downloaded from the DTLR website at the following address: http://www housing.dt1r.gov.uk/information/consult/responses/ summary/pdf/greenpap.pdf.
168 responses made reference to the right to buy. Arrangements are being made for copies of these responses to be collated and placed in the Library, except where the authors requested that their comments should not be released.
§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many former local authority properties sold to tenants under the right to buy scheme have subsequently been bought back by those local authorities in each Government Office region (a) in each year since 1980 and (b) in each quarter since April 1999. [44454]
§ Ms KeebleInformation reported to the Department on the repurchase of ex-council properties is presented as follows. Information prior to 1995-96 was not collected centrally.
357W
Local authority dwellings repurchased by local authorities— Exchange sales scheme 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 Government office region — — — — North East 0 0 0 0 North West 0 0 0 0 Yorkshire and the Humber 0 0 0 0 East Midlands 0 0 0 0 West Midlands 0 0 0 0 East 0 0 0 0 London 0 2 7 1 South East 0 0 0 0 South West 0 0 0 0 England 0 2 7 1
Local Authority dwellings repurchased by local authorities April to June 2000 July to September 2000 October to December 2000 January to March 2001 April to June 2001 July to September 2001 Government office region — — — — — — North East 0 0 1 20 1 1 North West 0 1 4 0 0 1 Yorkshire and the Humber 28 9 37 20 1 13 East Midlands 0 0 0 2 1 1 West Midlands 1 1 0 14 0 4 East 1 24 2 2 0 0 London 3 4 7 9 8 15 South East 3 10 5 5 7 3 South West 0 2 5 1 1 1 England 36 51 61 73 19 39
§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance) (Amendment) Regulations 1999 (S.I. No. 501) in encouraging local authorities to buy back properties previously sold to tenants under the right to buy scheme. [44455]
§ Ms KeebleThe incentive is voluntary, and involves agreement being reached between landlords and owners/leaseholders. We are monitoring the use made by local authorities of the incentive offered by these regulations. Our figures indicate that last year (2000-01) local authorities in England bought back just over 200 properties.
§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what information his Department has collated on the number of ex-local authority properties in London in which the leaseholder is a tenant who originally purchased the lease under the right to buy scheme. [44453]
§ Ms KeebleThe Department does not collect this information on its regular statistical returns. However, results derived from the 2000–01 Survey of English Housing indicate that some 62,000 householders in flats in London had purchased their present property since 1981 under the right to buy scheme from the local authority.