To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent assessment he has made of the level of negative equity in the housing market in each region. (282813)

Communities and Local Government do not produce its own estimates of negative equity.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders have estimated the number of owner-occupiers in negative equity, including by region, as at the end of 2008. These are available at:

http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/filegrab/Homeownerhousingequitythroughthedownturn.pdf?ref=6360