HC Deb 28 June 1967 vol 749 cc485-7
5. Mr. G. Campbell

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his policy regarding the conclusion in Chapter 2 of the Report on allocating council houses of the sub-committee of the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee in favour of group-plus-points schemes.

17. Mr. Eadie

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the Report by a subcommittee of the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee on allocating council houses.

47. Mr. Younger

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will now implement in full the recommendations of the Report of the Sub-Committee on Allocation of Council Tenancies; and if he will make a statement.

Dr. Dickson Mabon

My right hon. Friend has sent copies of the Report to all local housing authorities and has asked them for their views. He wants to consider their comments and discuss them with the local authority associations before coming to any conclusions.

Mr. Campbell

Will the Minister give the consideration of the Report very high priority since its subject, the allocation of council houses, is the cause of much frustration and misunderstanding in Scotland?

Dr. Mabon

Yes, Sir. The hon. Gentleman will remember that the Housing Advisory Committee intends to look at the evidence and representations made to it on the Cullingworth Report which, with all respect, I think takes precedence over this Report. That will be done at the October meeting. I hope that thereafter it will be able to get the views of others on the Kay Report, which is just as important, at least on the needs of housing management. It will take some time to get these matters settled and recommendations made to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. It is a great pity that the 1949 Report was neglected for so long.

Mr. Eadie

Is my hon. Friend aware that many of us on this side of the House think that this is a good Report and hope that it does not become dust covered on a shelf? Is he aware that, in my constituency, engaged couples are writing to me in the hope that, as a consequence of the Report, they will be considered for housing allocation?

Dr. Mabon

I would not like to answer the latter part of that supplementary question without seeing more evidence and discussing it with my right hon. Friend. The Report is certainly important in terms of the mobility of labour. The Government recognise that the problem must be tackled vigorously in the near future.

Mr. Younger

Has my hon. Friend considered the possibility of a national points scheme, which would help mobility considerably because everyone in different parts of the country would be able to assess their points standing on an equal basis?

Dr. Mabon

That is what might be called the 64,000 dollar question. While the Committee recommended that there should be some kind of uniformity such as that suggested in the Question on the Order Paper, its Report allowed for more than one model scheme to take account of different classes of authority and local variations from the model. I do not know whether we can take this and the next stage in one. Perhaps we shall have to take the matter in two parts.