§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on dampness and condensation in public sector housing in Scotland.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonIt is for local authorities, Scottish Homes, and the new town 921W development corporations to deal with dampness and condensation in their housing from the substantial resources at their disposal. Over £927 million has been made available for gross public capital investment in Scottish housing in 1992–93.
§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the meeting between his Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for housing and the hon. Member for Paisley, South in relation to the development of the rivers area of Foxbar in Paisley.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonI had a useful meeting with the hon. Member and representatives of Renfrew district council, Strathclyde regional council and the local community on 10 September about the Foxbar rivers area of Paisley.
Following the meeting, officials in the Scottish Office have put Renfrew district council in touch with the Forgewood initiative, as an example of a successful non-Scottish Office led urban regeneration initiative which would be of interest to those involved in the Foxbar rivers proposals. Officials in the Scottish Office await an invitation to a special meeting of the Foxbar rivers steering group, following the suggestion, at the meeting, that the Scottish Office could offer advice on the partnership approach to urban regeneration.
I am pleased that Renfrew district council is one of the authorities to benefit from the additional resources I announced on 23 November and has received a housing revenue account supplementary allocation of £0.700 million. This brings the resources available to Renfrew for investment in its own stock in 1992–93 to 19.139 million and will enable the council to make progress in Foxbar this year provided it attaches sufficient priority to this.
Applications for the urban programme resources available in 1993–94 will be received from Strathclyde region and Renfrew district councils by the end of this month. The representations the hon. Gentleman has made will be taken into account in considering applications from the Foxbar rivers area.
I shall also take full account of the council's proposals for expenditure in Foxbar together with the relative housing needs of Renfrew, when making decisions about provisional allocations for 1993–94.
I have written to the hon. Member about Scottish Homes' proposals for the regeneration of the Foxbar rivers area. Scottish Homes is committed to the regeneration of the Foxbar rivers area. It has been designated as an approved area for investment by Scottish Homes in the context of the recently signed strategic agreement between Scottish Homes and Renfrew district council. Scottish Homes will therefore be considering suitable projects from both housing associations and private developers which could involve up to £4.5 million being invested in the area over the next three to four years.