Catalogue description Ministry of Housing and Local Government and the Department of the Environment: Registered Files (ESD Series)

The Economic and Statistics Division of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government was established in 1969. The Division, which became part of the Department of the Environment in 1970 and existed until 1971, dealt with economic advice on housing and local government and the compilation of statistics relevant to these matters.

In 1971 there was a substantial re-organisation of the economics and statistics functions within the Department of the Environment, bringing together the economics and statistics divisions of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works. From 1971 to 1973, the functions formerly carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government's Economics and Statistics Division was carried out by the Economics, Housing Division, The Economics Regional Division and the Statistics Regional Division.

In 1973 there was a further re-organisation, and the responsible divisions became the Statistics Planning Division of the Statistics Directorate and the Economics, Housing, Urban and Environment Division.

This division of responsibilities endured until 1975 when the Economics and Statistics Environment and General Division, and the Economics and Statistics Housing Division were set up. These two divisions were disbanded in 1977, but thereafter the precise division of responsibilities amongst the Department of the Environment's economics and statistics divisions is somewhat unclear. However, according to the Department of the Environment Registry Guides 1982-1986, responsibility for the ESD series was divided amongst the following: Statistics Housing, Statistics; Planning, Population and General: Economics Housing; Housing Policy Analysis and Monitoring Unit.