§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will estimate the proportion of the population increase projected by his 799W Department that relates to rural areas; and how many additional households are expected to be formed by 2016. [56973]
§ Ms KeebleThe latest sub-national projections for England are the 1996-based projections prepared by the Office for National Statistics. Between 1996 and 2016 the population in those local authorities categorised by my Department as "deep rural" or "mixed rural" is projected to rise by 38 per cent. of the national increase. Over the same time period, the number of households in these local authorities is projected to rise by 0.88 million. This is 28 per cent. of the projected national increase.