§ 63. Mr. DunnachieTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give his calculations of rent increases for council house tenants in Glasgow in the next year; and if he will make a statement.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonIt is for Glasgow district council to determine the rent increases which will apply to its housing stock. The draft Housing Support Grant (Scotland) Order 1989 provides that the council will receive grant of £27.9 million to help with its council housing costs in 1989–90. In addition, the Housing Revenue Accounts General Fund Contribution Limits (Scotland) Order 1988 will enable the council to estimate for a contribution of up to £2.2 million to be carried from its general fund to its housing revenue account in 1989–90. Together, these subsidies to council housing amount to £30.1 million, or 47 per cent. of the total council housing subsidies expected to be made for 1989–90 in Scotland as a whole.
The proposed level of subsidies for Glasgow district council was intended to restrict the rent increases for 1989–90 to an average of £2.00 per dwelling per week. I estimate that, on the basis of reasonable assumptions about income and expenditure and excluding certain loan charges expenditure arising from covenant agreements, rents in Glasgow need not increase by more than this amount. The council entered into its covenant commitments in the knowledge that their cost would be disregarded for the purposes of subsidy calculations.