§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about capital investment for school building in the remainder of the priod 1970 to 1972 and in 1972–73.
§ Mr. Ross:I propose to increase the programme already announced by £8 million and also to raise the value of programmes from 1st April, 1970 by 9 per cent. following the increase in cost limits which I announced in reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Mr. Hannan) on 25th March. This will make £50 million available for starts for the period 1970–72. Of this, some £27 million is committed in allocations already made to education authorities for that period and in projects included in earlier programmes which had not started by 31st March, 1970. I propose therefore now to allocate a further £23 million for school building work to start in the remainder of the period to 31st March, 1972. I also hope to make a further £21 million available for work starting in 1972–73. A circular about these programmes is being issued as soon as possible to education authorities.—[Vol. 798, c. 425.]