§ 8. Mr. KnoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what has been the total expenditure by the Scottish Development Agency since May 1979.
§ Mr. KnoxCan my hon. Friend say how much, on average, the agency has spent each year since the present Government came into office, and how that compares with the average amount spent under the previous Government each year?
§ Mr. LangPerhaps I can best illustrate the figures by telling my hon. Friend that the budget for next year, at £180 million, is the largest that the agency has ever had—15 per cent. higher in real terms than in the last year of the last Labour Government.
§ Mr. McKelveyThe Minister will be aware that precious little of that money ever went to Kilmarnock. For that matter, I should like to know how much went towards improving the environment. Will the Minister undertake, on his next journey up north, to put on his hiking boots and march from Tummel, through Loch Rannoch, by Lochaber? He can go along heather tracks with heaven in their wiles. Some of us might think that there was a braggart in his step amidst all that beauty. Will he stop and reconsider the fact that if he does not give local authorities enough money to neutralise the billions of tons of rubbish and poison being poured into our coastal waters, neither he nor any of us, will ever
smell the tangle o' the Isles
§ Mr. LangI know that this is the season of Burns—we have just had the Kilmarnock edition. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the importance of environmental renewal. He is absolutely right. This year the agency is 302 spending about £54 million on environmental renewal projects. A total of 2,500 land renewal projects have been carried out in the last decade.