asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any proposals to amend the regulations governing the issuing of local authority mortgages under the right-to-buy legislation in order to allow discretion to an authority to take a previous history of rent arrears into account before granting a mortgage; and if he will make a statement.

No. Such a discretion would be open to abuse. A landlord may already, however, refuse to complete a sale under the right to buy to a tenant who has fallen a month behind with the rent and is still in arrears.