To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent estimate he has made of the number of second homes in (a) urban and (b) rural areas in England. (318484)

As at October 2009, there were 127,000 second homes in local authority areas classified as urban and 125,000 second homes in those classified as rural.

The data are as reported by all billing authorities on their annual council tax base (CTB) form. The split into urban and rural areas is based on the DEFRA rural definition and local authority classification. Full details of this can be found on the DEFRA website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/rural/rural-definition.htm