§ 15. Sir Alex Fletcherasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he proposes to take to require Edinburgh district council to apply the fullest amount of funds available to it to eliminate the backlog of housing improvement grant payments.
§ Mr. RifkindIn response to representations received from my hon. Friend and others we have issued Edinburgh district council with a provisional non-HRA allocation for next year of £34.52 million. We propose to earmark £26 million of this£5.75 million more than the council intended so spending—exclusively for the backlog of grant applications. Next year's expenditure on the backlog will, as a result of steps the Government have taken, therefore be double this year's, thus clearing about half of the city's remaining backlog of grant applications.