To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much the Government have received in capital receipts for the sale of council houses sold in East Sussex under the Right to Buy legislation (a) since the Right to Buy legislation was introduced and (b) since 1997. (110387)

Central Government only began receiving housing receipts in 2004-05. Before then, with-debt local authorities were required instead to set aside a proportion of their housing receipts. The receipts set aside could only be used for the repayment of the authority's debt. From 2004-05 set-aside no longer applied to most housing receipts as the “pooling” regime was introduced, whereby local authorities paid over or “pooled” a proportion of those receipts to the Secretary of State to support housing investment across the country.

The proportion of the capital receipt set aside or pooled is 75 per cent. for a dwelling and 50 per cent. for a non-dwelling asset. The local authority is free to use the remaining 25 per cent. or 50 per cent. respectively for any capital purpose they see fit.

Data formerly collected about amounts set aside and data collected about the value of receipts pooled by the Secretary of State do not separately identify the value of pooled capital receipts derived from houses. The data cover all housing pooled receipts. These include receipts arising from the sales of vacant housing land, shops, community centres, and garages that are on estates owned by local authorities.

The total housing receipts pooled for the geographical county which includes Brighton and Hove city council since the introduction of pooling on 1 April 2004 is £22,654,183.36, and the total housing receipts pooled for the administrative county which excludes the city council £8,953,484.02.