asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the number of houses in his Department's ownership in Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham and Havant districts; and how many of these are currently occupied.

The numbers are as follows:

	Stock	Occupied
Royal Navy
Portsmouth	1,586	4285
Gosport	3,622
Fareham	87
Havant	—
Army
Gosport/Portsmouth	111	109
Thorney Island	211	198

The unoccupied Royal Navy houses are vacant for the following reasons:

	Number
Vacant allocated	42
Vacant furnishing	45
Awaiting works services	196
Undergoing works services	252
Vacant	502

Plans are in hand to reduce our stocks of houses significantly over the next few years.