§ 22. Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he is satisfied with the progress being made with the sale of council houses in Scotland.
§ Mr. AncramYes. Since 1979 over 88,000 public sector tenants have bought their houses; binding contracts of sale have been concluded in a further 3,300 cases; and there are approximately another 6,600 applications at an earlier point in the pipeline. Local authorities are also increasingly appreciating the need to process sales quickly. The average time taken to complete transactions has fallen to approximately 7.5 months. Increased discount provisions for tenants of local authority flats which will come into effect on 7 January should further encourage sales.