§ Mr. McFallTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what action he is going to take to deal with the problem of homelessness in Scotland following the publication of Shelter's annual survey on homelessness.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonMy right hon. and learned Friend has already taken action to deal with the problems of homelessness and will continue to do so.
I should point out that the Shelter survey fails to provide a reasonable basis on which to assess Government policies. The extent of homelessness alleged by the Shelter survey is greater than that indicated by the statistics published by the Scottish Development Department. These statistics, which are compiled from returns made by local authorities, record that in 1988–89 about 25,000 households applied to local authorities under the homelessness provisions of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987; about 9,500 were assessed by local authorities as homeless and a further 7,500 as potentially homeless. Moreover, these figures are very similar to those for 1986–87 and 1987–88.
The Government are committted to maintaining an effective statutory framework for dealing with homelessness and will continue to ensure that local authorities and other bodies involved are properly resourced to meet the challenge of homelessness. The capital resources allocated to local authorities take full account of homelessness. I announced earlier this month an increase of £64 million in the provisional net allocations to local authorities for capital expenditure on the HRA block in 1990–91, compared with the equivalent figure for this year. In addition, the measures the Government have taken to expand the housing association movement and to revive 880W the private rented sector will be of particular benefit to the homeless. We are continuing to provide financial assistance to organisations in the voluntary sector which are concerned with homelessness.
I am also encouraging local authorities to make use of their powers in the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 to provide cash incentives to persuade tenants to move into the private sector, thus releasing housing for homeless families. Experience of such schemes in England has shown that they are a worth while and cost-effective means of helping the homeless.
The Government will continue to monitor homelessness closely and will take all necessary action to ensure that housing provision in Scotland matches housing needs more closely.