Council Housing (Hansard, 21 November 1973)

§ 5. Mr. Ewing
asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the average time an applicant is required to wait before being allocated a local authority house in Scotland.

§ The Under-Secretary of State For Development, Scottish Office (Mr. George Younger)
This information is not available centrally.

§ Mr. Ewing
Is the Minister aware that that is no surprise to us and that there is a suspicion that, even if the information were available, the Government would be so embarrassed that they would be reluctant to give it? Is he further aware that the evidence coming from local authorities is that the housing queues are growing longer? Is he satisfied with the fact that, as a result of his Government's policy, these queues are extending almost week by week? When will the Government give local authorities additional incentives to build more houses?

§ Mr. Younger
I should make it clear that an average figure for the whole of Scotland would mean nothing, because different authorities have different rules. Many, I regret to say, still have residence qualifications and, therefore, to give an average figure for the waiting lists would be meaningless. But whenever any authorities have outstanding housing needs for which they wish to build, I 1312 encourage them with everything that I can say and do to build more houses—and I hope that the hon. Gentleman will do the same.

Mr. Edward Taylor
Would my hon. friend agree, however, that in many Scottish cities there is an acute shortage of small houses for elderly single people and couples which is not being met, that many of us are aware of single people living alone in four-apartment houses just because they cannot get a transfer to a small house? Will he make an effort to have a major drive among local authorities to build some small houses, because the number of old people increases every year?

§ Mr. Younger
I agree with my hon. Friend. The Scottish Housing Advisory Committee, of which I am the chairman, has devoted considerable time and effort to considering this very problem for the last year or two. I support what my hon. Friend says and am doing all I can to encourage local authorities to provide more sheltered housing.

§ Mr. Ross
Does the Minister admit that the queues are lengthening? How can he explain his failure to persuade local authorities to build more?

§ Mr. Younger
First, the position in each local authority is different. There are some authorities—we have discussed this often before—with a surplus of houses. [Interruption.] There is no point in pretending that that is not so, because it is. There are other local authorities whose queues may be lengthening. If they are, I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will do the same as I do and persuade them to build as many houses as they can. They have every possible encouragement from me, not only verbal but financial, in which respect they now have the best system of encouragement that they have ever had.

§ Mr. Russell Johnston
Despite what the Minister has said, it is not only a question of persuading the local authorities. In Inverness, for example, the waiting list has jumped from seven months to over two years—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Again, this is Question Time. The point must be put interrogatively.

§ Mr. Johnston
I apologise, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister aware that the problem for local authorities in the Highlands, and to a large extent in the Grampians area also, is that there is a great shortage of people to build, no matter that the authorities are desperately keen to build? What proposals do the Government have to solve this problem?

§ Mr. Younger
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that most important problem, as I spent the whole of Friday in Inverness tackling that very problem with the local authorities there. I was glad to be able to announce then that, thanks to the work that has been done by them and by the joint working party which they set up at my suggestion last January, we are now in sight, if the present programmes which they have in hand can be carried through, of a balance between the need for and the provision of houses by the end of next year in that area.