§ 1939. Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage and number of houses currently inhabited in Scotland were built prior to (a) 1918 and (b)
§ Mr. Rifkind:Information on the percentage and number of inhabited houses in Scotland is not available in the form requested. Estimates of the age distribution of the total stock of dwellings in Scotland, as at December 1980, have been published on page 17 of the Scottish housing statistics, number 12.
§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland on the basis of his allocation to district councils for housing capital spending in the current year and the average cost of building a new house in the public sector in Scotland, what is his estimate of the number of public sector new houses that can be built.
§ Mr. Rifkind:It is entirely for local authorities to determine the proportions of their capital expenditure which they wish to devote to new building and to modernisation and rehabilitation. In view of this, and of the decreasing priority which local authorities themselves have chosen to give to new building within capital spending on housing since the mid-1970s, it would be inappropriate to equate capital allocations directly with new building activity.