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Mr. Connarty : I wonder at the Minister's complacency. Can he really mean it when he boasts about housing conditions in Scotland, when 392,000 houses suffer from

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condensation, and the survey reported that 267,000 are suffering from dampness? I hope that he does not mind if I correct his figures, but if we add the 52,000 senior citizen households with dampness to the 65,000 with condensation, we see that one in five of all Scottish households that include a pensioner have either dampness or condensation. I do not know how the Minister can possibly boast when, after 14 years of the Government's bungling, less than three quarters of Scottish houses have decent central heating and less than half have double glazing.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : I am not boasting at all. Of course there are problems, but I am trying to put the matter in perspective. Thoroughly thought-out planning and strategies are required to deal with it. The percentage of houses with severe dampness is relatively small, and, of course, top priority must be given to dealing with such houses throughout Scotland.

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