| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Geoffrey Lofthouse): Order. We are 17 minutes away from the winding-up speeches. Three hon. Gentlemen and one hon. Lady hope to catch my eye. With co-operation, I hope that all will be successful.
10.23 am
Mr. Matthew Banks (Southport): I had supposed that the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Mrs. Michie) would seek to catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and perhaps she will do so in a moment or two, but I shall heed your warning and speak briefly.
I listened with genuine interest to the remarks bythe hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Mr. Salmond).We have several things in common, including the fact that we both represent parts of the British Isles that neither of us was from originally. I note from memory that the hon. Gentleman's constituency benefited considerably from the borrowing consents that were announced by the Scottish Office in the past couple of weeks. I congratulate the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan. The nationalists seem to be doing extremely well in the ballot for Wednesday morning debates. They are obviously all putting in for the same subject. I only wish that some Conservative Members had similar success.
My hon. Friend the Member for Ayr (Mr. Gallie) rightly drew attention to the Government's success in selling more than 32 per cent. of the public sector housing stock in Scotland. That transformation was founded on our belief in choice and in a property-owning democracy.
In the light of the remarks by the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan and the general socialist desire for quantitative measures of success, let me say that we should not underestimate the fact that about £6 billion has been spent on housing stock in Scotland since 1979.An investment programme in council housing of more than £1 billion will take place in the next three years. Planned total expenditure of £3 billion is nearly three times that in England. Scottish Homes has invested more than £2 billion in Scottish housing since it came into being and has a budget of about £320 million for the coming year.
On top of the £424 million made available for housing stock investment, £16.8 million in borrowing consents has been made available to local authorities which have suffered from the fact that less money has been available as a result of decreased council house sales.
Mr. Salmond:
I have some figures from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations which show that 48 per cent. of working tenants in England, are on housing benefit compared with 27 per cent. in Scotland. Is the hon. Gentleman at all worried that the Government's policies have driven so many working tenants in England into the poverty trap and on to housing benefit?
Mr. Banks:
If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, he makes his own point in his own way and I wish to make my own point in the two or three minutes available to me, rather than allowing him to take me down that cul-de-sac.
My party and I realise the importance of genuine investment in housing stock. We also know that public money can never be fully exploited--can never gain value for money--without complementary qualitative reforms. The failure of opposition parties to grasp that point is still the great divide that separates us from them.
As I said in the House on 6 March in the debate on education in Scotland, we have devolved a great deal of power to the Scottish people, not by imposing a tartan tax or establishing an alternative bureaucratic apparatus staffed by apparatchiks in Edinburgh, but by giving tenants the right to own a home--and what can give anyone a greater stake in society than that?
Our approach to housing has assigned a limited though significant role to Government and local authorities.We prefer to enable the individual to find a home for himself. The themes of greater opportunities for home ownership, wider choice for tenants and targeting help on the most needy are much in evidence in Scottish Office policy.
We believe in levering private sector finance to supplement public funding. We believe that the mixture of the investment from business and financial institutions with public funds creates a more permanent and effective revitalisation of housing in urban areas than spending public funds alone.
Mr. Ian Davidson (Glasgow, Govan):
I shall be brief because this is an important debate and I know that other hon. Members wish to speak. Housing in Scotland is a
This issue does not have the attention that it deserves because so many of the opinion formers are adequately housed. Few Members of Parliament, few councillors and few journalists live in council housing and are subject to the difficulties of dampness and of cold accommodation in which a large number of our population live. Therefore, the issue does not concern the public print and it is inadequately covered on television. It is swept under the carpet because the people who suffer tend to be the less vocal and those less able to access the sources of public information. Therefore, that great disgrace is inadequately covered by the media.
The Government are pursuing a vendetta against the public sector. They have deliberately decided to cut public spending, to drive people into the private sector--in many cases, into the hands of unscrupulous private landlords who are seeking to exploit the system of housing benefit for their personal gain without regard to the quality of the accommodation that they provide. The Government have been remiss in tackling the issue. They appear willing to allow the exploitation of those in need by unscrupulous private landlords, without adequate supervision.
In the time available to me, I shall raise one other issue: the anti-social behaviour of tenants in council housing. The Government should treat this issue more seriously than they do. They ought to introduce legislation to allow councils much greater power to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Mr. Davidson:
I shall not give way to the hon. Gentleman because only a limited amount of time is available.
Ms Roseanna Cunningham (Perth and Kinross):
I wish to speak in the debate because of the common misconception that housing problems are pretty much the province of the big inner cities. I shall concentrate on my constituency because it is widely seen by many people as one of the more prosperous parts of Scotland--and in some ways it is. However, it still has a housing problem, both in Perth and in the rural areas. There are homeless people in Perth. Indeed, there is a growing problem--I know that that may come as a surprise to people who have swallowed some of the lazy, shorthand descriptions of
If the Under-Secretary announces a rough sleepers initiative today, he should announce that there will be some resources to go with it. If homelessness is a problem in Perth, it will be a problem in the rest of Scotland. The Cyrenians and the churches' action for the homeless are examples of what is felt to be necessary in my constituency. I assure hon. Members that there is a real unmet need.
Perth has a growing population, a factor that brings its own pressures. In the context of housing, it means a pressure on the existing stock--no matter the form of tenure. In addition, the area's desirability in terms of owner-occupation means that it is attractive to builders and that the prices are higher than in many other areas. The availability of owner-occupied housing is not matched by sufficient affordable rented accommodation. For example, the Perth housing association has to operate in an area of high land prices and competition from speculative builders in a city that is built up almost to its boundaries. There is no abundance of empty houses to be bought and renovated in Perth--as is the case in many inner cities--even if the association had the resources to do so, which it does not.
Budgetary reductions imposed on the Perth housing association in 1995-96 are already delaying site starts and limiting opportunities for site acquisitions--yet it has one of the biggest waiting lists in Scotland. Demographic projections show that in 10 years or so, Perth will be bigger than Dundee, but there is no sign of an increase in resources to cope with that growing population, at least in terms of housing. The situation is quite the reverse--for example, the Scottish Office, in cutting the budget to Scottish Homes, is ensuring that, when those cuts are passed on, the pressure in Perth will become ever worse. Fewer new starts means longer waiting lists. Is the Minister content with the fact that those who are already waiting for houses will have to wait even longer?
It is not just the housing association sector that is suffering. The savage cuts in Scottish Office grants to local authorities will have a serious effect on the provision that the voluntary sector administers. This, together with the restricted manoeuvrability of the housing associations, is likely adversely to affect bodies such as the Cyrenians, whom I have already mentioned. They know that they are not--with the eight to 10 beds that they have available--reaching everyone in the area whom they consider to be eligible. Again, there is unmet need in Perth and Kinross--one of the supposedly more prosperous parts of Scotland.
Although organisations such as the Cyrenians work hard, they cannot take up the entire responsibility. The fact that we rely on them to do so much is an indictment of the past 16 years of Tory Government. Cuts in local government budgets directly affect local authority housing provision. Information from the Perth and Kinross district council housing department shows that the waiting lists in Perth and Kinross have risen by 27 per cent. over the past six years. In response to the hon. Member for Ayr(Mr. Gallie), let me say that that is a direct result of a reduction in investment in council housing. In the same
period, the number of applications to the housing authority from homeless people rose by more than 50 per cent. I repeat: this is in a part of Scotland that is widely regarded as being one of the most prosperous.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |