§ Mr. HoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many houses in Scotland lack at present basic facilities such as hot water, electricity and inside lavatories; and how many of these are in rural areas.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe available information is set out in the following table, which gives the numbers of dwellings below the statutory tolerable standard and, of those, the numbers lacking one or more of the standard amenities (sink, hot water and inside WC). It also shows the numbers lacking a fixed bath or shower.
Dwellings below tolerable standard at 31 March 19871 Number of dwellings below tolerable standard Lacking one or more standard amenity2 3 Lacking a fixed bath or shower2 3 Scotland of which in districts classified as 54,791 31,389 29,406 Rural4 24,786 10,994 9,125 1 Including most recent years' figures for those local authorities which have not submitted returns for 1987. 2 Some local authorities were unable to provide information on dwellings in this category. 3 A dwelling may be recorded in both of these columns and there is therefore an element of double counting. 4 As defined in table 16 of Scottish Office central research unit paper "A Study of Multiply Deprived Households in Scotland", comprising Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Grampian (excluding Aberdeen district), Highland and Tayside (excluding Dundee district) regions; Islands areas; and north-east Fife, East Lothian, Argyll and Bute, Clydesdale and Cumnock and Doon Valley districts.