§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he has any plans to change his housing policies in the light of the results of the survey for East Kilbride district council that the majority of people living in new towns consider the district councils as the best landlords and want their tenancies transferred to their district councils.
§ Mr. LangNo. The Government have consistently stated that they would not pre-empt any decision about future landlord choice for new town tenants without first seeking the views of tenants themselves. The position in each town will be carefully considered once an order for the dissolution of its development corporation has been made, and formal consultations will be held with the development corporations, district councils and representative tenant groups to review the position and to determine the type of transfers which will take place in the period between the making of the dissolution order and dissolution itself. The survey commissioned by East Kilbride district council was confined to the town of East Kilbride. It is not therefore representative of the views of tenants in all five Scottish new towns. The results of that survey did not confirm that "the majority of people living in the new towns" consider the district council as the "best landlord".
172WAlthough great care is taken by staff to identify, protect and treat those who are thought to be at particular risk, deaths from unpredictable and determined acts of self-destruction can never be completely eliminated.