To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many people are classified by his Department as homeless in (a) Newham (b) Tower Hamlets, (c) Hackney, (d) Redbridge, (e) Waltham Forest and (f) Barking and Dagenham; what this figures is as a proportion of the population; and what are the corresponding figures for the United Kingdom. [6857]

[holding answer 7 July 1997]: Local authorities in England report to my Department, on their quarterly P1E return, the number of households for which they accept responsibility to secure accommodation under the homelessness provisions of the Housing Act 1985. The latest report date for 1996 for the Boroughs listed are as follows:

London borough	Households accepted as homeless	Annual acceptances per 1,000 households
Barking and Dagenham	170	2.7
Hackney	1830	213.5
Newham	3224	210.5
Redbridge	324	3.6
Tower Hamlets	1536	210.5
Waltham Forest	771	8.3
1 Part-year information for 3 quarters only.
2 Scaled up to an annual rate.
3 Part-year information for 1 quarter only.

The corresponding estimates for England are total acceptances in 1996 of some 116,870 households and 5.9 acceptances per 1,000 households. For information about other parts of the United Kingdom, I refer my hon. Friend to my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland.