§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the number of houses planned to be built by each district council as submitted in their latest housing plans; and what percentage of their public housing stock this represents.
§ Mr. RifkindThe proposals for new house building which local authorities include in their housing plans relate to the assessed needs of their districts over a five-year period starting from the date of the plan. The last full round of plans was submitted in 1979 and only 14 full plans were submitted for 1980. Authorities made different assumptions about what was likely to be achievable and their actual new building figures depend on subsequent decisions as to the allocation of resources between new building and—what is now more important—the improvement of existing stock. I accordingly believe that it would not be useful to try now to use the available figures as a basis for the kind of comparison which the hon. Member has in mind. The most recent available figures for progress actually achieved in each district are at pages 12 and 13 of "Scottish Housing Statistics" No. 12, a copy of which is in the Library.