§ 5.13 p.m.
§ Lord KIRKHILLMy Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. The Bill before your Lordships' House today has a single purpose. It is to raise the statutory limit on the 1048 maximum amount which the Secretary of State may lend out of the National Loans Fund to the Scottish Special Housing Association to finance capital expenditure on new houses and major improvements. The total of the Association's borrowing from the National Loans Fund is limited by Parliament. This limit, which has been increased from time to time by legislation, is at present £290 million. The Association has to date borrowed sums approaching £250 million, and the contracts for building work which it has already entered into commit it to expenditure which will bring total borrowing to over £270 million. We expect that, taking into account actual borrowings, plus the Association's contractual commitments, we are likely to reach the £290 million borrowing limit by the summer of this year. Consequently, to avoid any pause in the Scottish Special Housing Association's building operations, which play such an important part in public sector housing provision in Scotland, the statutory limit on borrowing needs to be increased now.
The housing programme which the SSHA has developed in Scotland is one to which the Government continue to attach a high priority. The Scottish Special Housing Association has contributed a very great deal to the solving of Scotland's housing needs, and we see a substantial continuing role for them in the kind of work I have described. For these important purposes additional loan finance is necessary. We think it right to give the Association firm statutory backing for a 5-year programme of work, subject to the need to obtain a Ministerial order beyond the immediate increase of £85 million for which we are making provision meantime. The figures of £375 million and £500 million in the Bill have been determined on this basis. My Lords, I beg to move that the Bill be now read a second time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Lord Kirkhill.)
Lord CAMPBELL of CROYMy Lords, again we are grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhill, for his concise explanation of the purposes of this Bill. It has come from another place, where it received a good "going over", and I do not therefore propose myself to raise again here the points that were there 1049 brought up. I will say only that the SSHA has operated for about 40 years in Scotland, and its general purposes and its work are supported by this Bench here as well as by the Bench opposite. I thought it was better use of our time today in your Lordships' House for me to concentrate on the Bill we have just been dealing with, the Freshwater and Salmon Fisheries Bill, and I hope noble Lords will take this into account if they noticed that I spoke for a little longer than usual in considering the background and the principle of that Bill.
§ Lord KIRKHILLMy Lords, I should like, of course, to thank the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Croy, for his generous acceptance of the Government's need to increase the commitment of the SSHA housing programme, and to assure him that, speaking personally, I had not noticed that he had taken a longer time than usual during the freshwater fisheries debate. I was, as always, interested in the points that he had to make.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a.
§ Lord KIRKHILLMy Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be not committed.
§ Moved, That the Bill be not committed.—(Lord Kirkhill.)
Lord CAMPBELL of CROYMy Lords, as this is a Money Bill, we on this side of the House see no point in considering it further in Committee.
§ On Question, Committee negatived.