HC Deb 19 March 1984 vol 56 cc344-5W
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many tenanted houses owned by housing associations have been sold to sitting tenants of general needs housing; whether any have been sold in any of the five Link housing association schemes in West Edinburgh; and which housing associations have been involved in the sales;

(2) whether any tenanted houses owned by housing associations have been sold to sitting tenants of general needs housing with a discount; and what are the names of such housing associations and their estates;

(3) what are the numbers of general needs housing owned by housing associations which are now tenanted in Scotland.

Mr. Ancram

Registered housing associations in Scotland own a total of approximately 16,300 general needs houses which are available for letting. At any time it is estimated that some 15,650 of these are likely to be tenanted. Associations also own a number of unimproved properties which are not available for let prior to improvement work being carried out.

The total number of houses sold to sitting tenants as at 31 December 1983 is 61 of which 38 were sold with discounts. Details of the sales are set out in the following table. None of the houses sold is in Link Housing Association schemes in west Edinburgh.

Housing association Location Number of houses sold
Clyde Housing Association Ltd. Inverkip *22
Glasgow Fair Housing Association Ltd. Rutherglen (1) Glasgow-Partick (2) *3
Gorgie-Dalry Housing Association Ltd. Edinburgh *8

Housing association Location Number of houses sold
Link Housing Association Ltd Edinburgh (5) 21
Falkirk (7)
Grangemouth(6)
Polmont (3)
Lowlands Housing Society Ltd. Kelso *5
Viewpoint Housing Association Ltd. Edinburgh 2
61
* Indicates sales with discount.

Details are no available centrally of the estates in which these houses are located; some houses, eg tenement property, are not in identifiable estates.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will issue guidelines to housing associations on selling to sitting tenants of general needs housing with discounts; and what timetable will be in operation.

Mr. Ancram

Guidance issued to housing associations in November 1980 on voluntary sales of houses to tenants indicates that associations have discretion to offer discounts to sitting tenants, provided the agreement of the Housing Corporation is received, and describes the requirements to be satisfied in calculating them. I am considering whether further guidance is necessary.

£'000
Health Boards 1984–85 Increase over 1983–84 Allocations Of which Element for Expansion
Recurrent Expenditure Allocation
(Net) Cash Per cent. Cash Per cent,
Argyll and Clyde 91,706 3,946 4.50 667 0.76
Ayrshire and Arran 63,653 4,432 7.48 2,217 3.74
Borders 18,432 1,012 5.81 368 2.11
Dumfries and Galloway 32,629 1,693 5.47 541 1.75
Fife 60,572 3,418 5.98 1,269 2.22
Forth Valley 59,106 2,990 5.33 882 1.57
Grampian 110,808 5,958 5.68 1,980 1.89
Greater Glasgow 338,607 13,942 4.29 1,766 0.54
Highland 46,876 2,284 5.12 598 1.34
Lanarkshire 103,018 5,347 5.47 1,729 1.77
Lothian 203,849 9,962 5.14 2,631 1.36
Orkney 3,362 202 6.39 85 2.69
Shetland 4,214 277 7.04 126 3.20
Tayside 119,343 4,455 3.88 54 0.05
Western Isles 6,353 444 7.51 225 3.81
Total 1,262,528 60,362 15,138
Average 5.02 1.26
The information is in respect of allocations to health boards for all their recurrent expenditure commitments. In addition, £35 million has been allocated to boards for their ordinary capital programmes in 1984–85, against £32 million in 1983–84—an increase of 9.4 per cent.