§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what are the numbers of tenant management housing cooperatives now operating in Scotland under the local authorities, Scottish Special Housing Association and the New Towns Development Corporation; and what encouragement his Department provides to further tenant housing co-operatives.
§ Mr. AncramThe decision on whether to set up a local tenant management co-operative is primarily for the housing authority concerned, and the Scottish Development Department does not collect statistics centrally on the number of such co-operatives. However, I am aware of some 11 management co-operatives currently operating in Scotland, the majority in the Glasgow area, and a further nine which are being actively considered.
The Scottish Development Department is concerned to improve tenant participation in housing management through measures such as the establishment of management co-operatives where appropriate. To this end we have recently agreed to continue for a further three years our funding of the tenant participation advisory service which aims, as one of its objectives, to assist the formation of housing co-operatives.