§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) whether he will consider exempting council houses held for the specific purpose of decanting existing tenants during rehabilitation of public sector houses from payment of the standard community charge for a period greater than three months;
(2) if he will list in the Official Report the present number of holiday homes and the present number of houses empty for a period in excess of three months in each local government housing authority in Scotland;
(3) if he will estimate the amounts each local government housing authority will require to pay in financial year 1988–89 in standard community charges for empty public sector houses in their area, assuming the level for the personal community charge is that already estimated by Her Majesty's Government as the level necessary in such area to raise the revenue currently raised by domestic rates and also assuming the multiplier in each area is set at a rate of two times the personal community charge.
§ Mr. LangFigures are not available in the form requested. An estimate of the numbers of second homes and of local authority houses empty for a period in excess of three months is set out, for each district and islands council area, in the table. The estimates of second homes are as at 30 June 1986, and those of empty local authority houses are as at 31 March 1987. In both cases they derive from information supplied by local authorities.
Under section 10(8)(b) of the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987, levying authorities (regional and islands councils) have discretion to extend the three-month period during which the standard community charges not payable in respect of unoccupied and unfurnished premises. The amounts of standard community charge which will be payable in respect of empty public sector houses will therefore depend on how levying authorities exercise their discretion. My right hon. and learned Friend has no plans to make special arrangements for council houses held for decanting. Houses which are uninhabitable because they are undergoing reconstruction already give rise to an exemption from standard community charge liability under the Standard and Collective Community Charges (Scotland) Regulations 1988.
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District/Island authorities Second homes Local authority houses unoccupied for more than three months Berwickshire 184 0 Ettrick and Lauderdale 257 1 Roxburgh 313 11
District/Island authorities Second homes Local authority houses unoccupied for more than three months Tweeddale 200 0 Clackmannan 37 1 Falkirk 125 4 Stirling 162 36 Annandale and Eskdale 171 0 Nithsdale 283 1 Stewartry 478 0 Wigtown 331 0 Dunfermline 68 4 Kirkcaldy 126 19 North East Fife 801 17 Aberdeen City 312 102 Banff and Buchan 393 27 Gordon 355 0 Kincardine and Deeside 293 0 Moray 515 8 Badenoch and Strathspey 565 0 Caithness 205 0 Inverness 304 0 Lochaber 374 0 Nairn 55 0 Ross and Cromarty 663 0 Skye and Lochalsh 527 0 Sutherland 428 0 East Lothian 564 42 Edinburgh City 726 119 Midlothian 44 0 West Lothian 44 4 Argyll and Bute 2,763 9 Bearsden and Milngavie 3 2 Clydebank 35 84 Clydesdale 155 27 Cumbernauld and Kilsyth 27 10 Cumnock and Doon Valley 38 7 Cunninghame 1,884 8 Dumbarton 311 20 East Kilbride 42 0 Eastwood 16 0 Glasgow City 674 98 Hamilton 51 56 Inverclyde 84 54 Kilmarnock and Loudoun 70 31 Kyle and Carrick 539 8 Monklands 65 0 Motherwell 16 44 Renfrew 141 105 Strathkelvin 38 7 Angus 599 1 Dundee City 208 249 Perth and Kinross 994 4 Orkney 166 3 Shetland 166 4 Western Isles 460 9 Scotland Total 19,446 1,236