§ Mr. Gwilym Robertsasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the number of houses in Scotland where lead tanks and pipes will be replaced during the financial year 1982–83.
§ Mr. RifkindThe bids I have received from local authorities indicate that they would expect to use in total about £6 million of the money available from their non-housing revenue account allocations for 1982–83 in meeting demands for grants from the private sector for the replacement or by-passing of lead plumbing. If the demand in 1982–83 arises to the extent which authorities expect this should enable up to around 13,000 houses to be dealt with.
I have no indication at this stage of the possible extent of similar works in the case of local authorities' own houses. The cost of any such work will require to be met from within the housing revenue account allocations given to them.
§ Mr. Gwilym Robertsasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what financial resources are available in Scotland in 1982–83 for identifying homes with dangerous water and for replacing lead pipes and tanks; and what plans he has for increasing those resources.
§ Mr. RifkindThe cost of surveys by district councils to identify homes with possible lead-in-water-problems will be eligible for rate support grant; relevant expenditure for 1982–83 has been increased by £1 million towards this end.
An additional £12.7 million is being made available to local authorities for improvement and repairs grants within their non-housing revenue account allocations for 1982–83, which it will be open to authorities to use in part to meet requests for grants towards the cost of replacing or bypassing lead plumbing in private sector houses. The cost of similar work in local authorities' own houses will be met from their existing housing revenue account allocations.