HC Deb 14 April 1965 vol 710 cc1401-3
35. Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what research he is doing into the educational needs which arise from overspill agreements and other population movements.

Mrs. Hart

I am making arrangements with the Local Government Operational Research Unit of the Royal Institute of Public Administration for a study of the methods by which requirements for school places arising from population movement may be forecast. The study will be concentrated upon Scottish new towns, where the education authorities and the new town development corporations have promised their full co-operation, but I hope that forecasting techniques will be applicable to other areas of population increase and movement.

Mr. Dalyell

I welcome this new initiative. Will the unit give urgent consideration to the Linlithgow-Whitburn type of problem, with which the Minister is familiar?

Mrs. Hart

The kind of information thrown up by this study and the forecasting techniques which may emerge should be of great assistance in enabling an authority such as the West Lothian authority to make much more accurate assessments of priority of problems. The general purpose of this study is to assist education authorities in this way.

Miss Harvie Anderson

Would not the hon. Lady consider the suggestion I have already put forward that some money should be allocated to the Scottish Special Housing Association for the specific purpose of building schools in such an area as this, and would not this meet much more quickly the urgent requirements for just such an area as that in which the hon. Member for West Lothian (Mr. Dalyell) and I have an interest?

Mrs. Hart

One of the difficulties with which we are faced is that for the commitments we are anxious to undertake with building programmes of all kinds, we find that the resources bequeathed to us by the late Government are not sufficient for our purpose. As the right hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well, he and his hon. Friends did nothing at all to encourage the technological efficiency of the building industry in Scotland, which is what we are setting our minds to do.

Miss Harvie Anderson

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of that reply, I beg to give notice that I shall seek to raise the subject on the Adjournment.