HC Deb 20 May 1992 vol 208 cc247-8
9. Mr. Kynoch

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many council houses have been sold in Scotland to their tenants since 1979.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

The total number of houses sold by public authorities since 1979 is nearly 248,000, of which nearly 240,000 have been sold to sitting tenants. Nearly 178,000 of those sales to sitting tenants were made by local authorities.

Mr. Kynoch

Although I welcome the news about the number of sales of council houses to private individuals, what measures are being taken to ensure that there is an adequate stock of rented accommodation, particularly in fast-developing districts such as the environs of Aberdeen where housing prices are high?

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend on his outstanding victory in the general election. His constituency is typical of many constituencies in the north-east, and has problems associated with success. We are ensuring that Scottish Homes is sufficiently funded. It is committing £1.75 million to provide housing association budgets in Kincardine and Deeside for 60 housing units. An increasing population is one of the factors that we take into account when making allocations to housing authorities. We shall continue to do so and shall give further encouragement to the private rented sector.

Mrs. Fyfe

While he is about it, would the Minister care to tell the House how many council houses in Scotland are unfit to live in? At the present permission-to-borrow rate given to local authorities, in which year next century does the Minister expect council tenants in Scotland to have decent houses in which to live? Is that too much to ask? Perhaps the Minister should come to Glasgow to look at the deplorable housing conditions of many people, instead of swanning around nice new developments and ignoring the problems of many of those people.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

The hon. Lady talks of swanning around nice new developments, several of which in her constituency I much enjoyed seeing and am glad to support. We strongly support the policy of bringing empty houses back into use in Scotland. Total funding for the public sector this year will be about £897 million and for Scottish Homes it will be £364 million— a total of about £1.25 billion. Those figures represent substantial resources if properly applied. I recommend that the hon. Lady's authority co-operate with other organisations to find the best policy for empty houses in the constituency.

Mr. Dewar

I congratulate the hon. Member for Kincardine and Deeside (Mr. Kynoch) on speaking up and drawing attention to the lack of rented accommodation. That is a sign of independence among Scottish Tory Back Benchers, which I welcome.

Does the Minister accept that it is tragic at a time when the housing stock in the public sector in many areas is crumbling, when damp is a scourge destroying the quality of life for thousands and when rents have been artificially forced up, that the main exhibit in the Scottish Office's legislative programme is an adjustment to the rents-to-mortgages scheme which has so far attracted only 0.1 per cent. of eligible tenants? Is that not an abdication of responsibility, given the problems that we face and the desperate need for increased resources?

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

I have reason to believe that the cause of the low take-up in the rents-to-mortgages scheme by local authorities so far is that some appear to have been waiting to see who would win the general election. The hon. Gentleman and his colleagues are still in opposition and we are still in government. The amount spent on publicity was a drop in the ocean compared with the receipts of well in excess of £1 billion, which have been spent on public sector houses in Scotland for the right to buy generally. The rents-to-mortgages publicity had the effect of greatly increasing right-to-buy sales, and I have no doubt that when we introduce our Bill to extend tenants' rights far further than the Labour party ever did, this procedure will be speeded up and there will be many more sales throughout Scotland.