§ Mr. Michael Martinasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any evidence that last year's relaxation of the conditions under which housing improvement grants are made has led to undue speculative purchasing by building and property companies to the detriment of the original objectives of his scheme.
§ Mr. Allan StewartMy right hon. Friend has no evidence of any undesirable trend in the kind of grant applications that local authorities are approving. He would hope that in exercising their discretion in relation to these applications authorities would be ready to encourage initiatives to improve the housing stock, while having due regard to their responsibilities in respect of the grants they decide to pay.