§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what further provision he intends to make in order to reduce the length of delays presently experienced by
644Wpurchasers from Scottish Homes; what is the number of legally qualified staff presently engaged in work relating to the sale of domestic residential property; what is the number of legally qualified staff formerly employed by (a) the Housing Corporation and (b) the Scottish Special Housing Association in order to deal with such work; and what arrangements are being made by Scottish Homes in order to reduce the backlog of cases.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonScottish Homes has recently contracted with some 30 private legal firms to assist its own in-house conveyancing staff to increase the throughput of applications in order to clear the large number of cases on hand at present. This arrangement should enable up to 1,000 applications to be processed monthly, and should ensure that in future sales should be completed within six months of application.
The number of legally qualified staff employed by Scottish Homes on house sale work is nine, with a further four posts awaiting recruitment. This compares with 14 such staff employed by SSHA to do such work. The Housing Corporation had no landlord function and thus had no such staff.