§ Mr. GrahamTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what extra finance he is making available to the local authorities who have been affected by the recent floodings in Scotland.
§ Mr. StewartThe extra financial assistance from the Government to the local authorities affected by last month's severe flooding in Strathclyde takes a variety of forms.
First, the Bellwin scheme of emergency financial assistance to local authorities has been activated as regards the whole of Strathclyde region. It is therefore open to all authorities within Strathclyde to submit claims for grant under the scheme. No formal claims have yet been received, as again the local authorities are still assessing their costs. Authorities have until 31 May 1995 to submit their claims. It is therefore too early to estimate what the final amounts of any Bellwin grant payable as a result of the flooding might be.
Secondly, a supplementary housing capital allocation of £100,000 was made to Renfrew district council in respect of the cost of re-housing persons made homeless by the flooding and carrying out repairs to council housing stock. I also announced that a further £150,000 was being made available to meet further capital housing requirements in the current financial year for any of the district councils in the affected area: as yet no request has been received for any part of these additional resources.
Thirdly, supplementary non-housing capital allocations totalling £1.365 million was made to Strathclyde regional council for 1994–95. These related to a variety of services, primarily roads and transport and water and sewerage, and met in full the request for additional capital resources made by the regional council. We have advised the district councils affected that we will consider sympathetically, so far as available resources allow, any requests from them for additional non-housing capital allocations for the current financial year. So far no such requests have been received.
Finally, we have made it clear to the local authorities concerned that we will take into account when setting both housing and non-housing capital allocations for 1995–96 any reasonable requests from them for additional resources arising from the flooding. Again no such requests have yet been received, as I understand that the authorities concerned are still assessing the costs to them of the flooding.
We continue to be in close touch with the local authorities and will respond to any requests from them as quickly as possible.