Housing Policy (Technical Information)

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will provide the information necessary to up-date Tables VIII 2, 5, 25 and 26 in Technical

TABLE VIII.2 (REVISED): CHANGES IN THE STOCK OF LOCAL AUTHORITY DWELLINGS: ENGLAND AND WALES
Thousands
			1975–76	1976–77	1977–78^*
Total at start of year	…	…	4,748	4,870	4,902
Gains
Completions	…	…	112	109	104
Acquisitions (from developers)	…	…	1	Nil	Nil
Acquisitions (others)	…	…	16	22	14
Net gain from conversions	…	…	1	2	2
Total gains	…	…	130	133	120
Losses
Sales	…	…	2	6	14
Slum clearance	…	…	1	1	1
Temporary houses demolished	…	…	3	2	1
Other losses	…	…	2	2	2
Total losses	…	…	8	11	18
Total at end of year	…	…	4,870	4,992	5,094†
Net Gain	…	…	122	122	102
Discretionary improvements	…	…	41	33	31
^*Provisional figures; partly estimated and subject to revisions.
†Excludes 94,000 new town dwellings transferred on 1st April 1978.

TABLE VIII.5 (REVISED): TYPES OF HOUSES IN LOCAL AUTHORITY HOUSING STOCK: ENGLAND AND WALES 1978
Thousands
	Pre 1945	1945–64	1965 or later	All ages
Houses and Bungalows
One bedroom	19	80	74	173
Two bedrooms	190	362	182	734
Three bedrooms	753	1,023	424	2,200
Total	962	1,465	680	3,107
Flats
One bedroom	39	242	403	684
Two bedrooms	45	347	294	686
Three bedrooms	28	116	114	258
Total	112	705	811	1,628
Dwellings with four or more bedrooms (houses and flats)	47	55	51	153
Unclassified (mostly acquired by purchase)^*	..	..	..	206
Total	1,121	2,225	1,542	5,094
^*The 170,000 acquired dwellings shown in table VIII.3 of technical volume 3 of the housing policy Green Paper, plus "acquisitions" in 1976–77 and 1977–78 as shown in table VIII.2 (revised). Detail of dwellings sold, or withdrawn from the stock in other ways, is not sufficient to allocate them other than pro rata. For this reason, and because the returns are not complete, the figures in this table are estimates that cannot be relied on to the nearest 1,000.

Volume III of the Green Paper "Housing Policy", Command Paper No. 6851, to 1st April 1978 or the latest convenient date.

The revised tables are as follows:

TABLE VIII.25 (REVISED): AVERAGE LOCAL AUTHORITY RENTS BY TYPE, AGE AND SIZE OF DWELLING AT APRIL 1978: ENGLAND AND WALES
£ a week
		Dwellings built before 1945	Dwellings built 1945–64	Dwellings built since 1964	Dwellings completed in 1977–78
Houses
Two bedrooms	…	4·87	5·57	6·40	6·96
Three bedrooms	…	5·33	6·17	7·06	7·75
Bungalows
Two bedrooms	…	3·88	4·46	5·06	5·57
Three bedrooms	…	4·49	4·89	5·75	6·43
Flats
One bedroom	…	4·05	4·82	5·39	5·86
Two bedrooms	…	5·11	5·83	6·58	7·35
Three bedrooms	…	5·81	6·80	7·52	8·99
Note: The figures for dwellings built before 1945 and in 1945–64 refer to the same dwellings—apart from there being a few differences in the District Councils providing figures—as the corresponding figures in table VIII.25 in technical volume III of the housing policy Green Paper. But the rents of dwellings built since 1964 include in addition dwellings completed in 1976–77 and 1977–78—about 213,000—see the revised table VIII.2.

TABLE VIII.26 (REVISED): CHANGES IN AVERAGE LOCAL AUTHORITY RENTS BY TYPE OF DWELLING 1969–78
		31st March 1969 (£ a week)	1st April 1978 (£ a week)	Increase (£ a week)	Increase (per cent.)
Two bedroom houses
Pre 1945	…	1·56	4·87	3·31	212
1945–64	…	1·95	5·57	3·62	186
Three bedroom houses
Pre 1945	…	1·75	5·33	3·58	205
1945–64	…	2·16	6·17	4·01	186
One bedroom flats
Pre 1945	…	1·36	4·05	2·69	198
1945–64	…	1·76	4·82	3·06	174
Two bedroom flats
Pre 1945	…	1·91	5·11	3·20	168
1945–64	…	2·25	5·83	3·58	159
Three bedroom flats
Pre 1945	…	2·11	5·81	3·70	175
1945–64	…	2·82	6·80	3·98	141
Note: The reference in the note to table VIII.25 (revised) about comparability with table VIII.25 of technical volume III applies also to this table.

Volume 957: debated on Thursday 9 November 1978