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Council Housing
4. Mr. Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about expenditure on local authority housing in Fife. [34172]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Raymond S. Robertson): Fife's capital allocation for 1996-97 for investment in local authority housing totals £15.5 million. It is for the council to determine its expenditure priorities.
Mr. Campbell: Does the Minister accept that that is a deeply disappointing answer to the many needy and anxious people who come to me and to other Fife Members of Parliament seeking council housing? Is he aware that the result of Government policy will be a 70 per cent. reduction in council house expenditure in real terms between 1988 and 1998? How can Fife council provide housing for people who need it and for people in north-east Fife who desperately need it?
Mr. Robertson: Fife council can provide housing if it examines imaginatively, realistically and positively the proposals for stock transfers. In that way, it will be able to access significant new sums for investment throughout Fife, particularly in the hon. and learned Gentleman's constituency. If he is so concerned, I ask him to get in touch with Fife council as a matter of priority. I offer him
the support of my officials to discuss the issue with the council to enable it to put together a package that will achieve the investment levels that he wants.5. Mr. Ernie Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the change in council house expenditure and planned expenditure in real terms between 1989-90 and 1998-99. [34173]
Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: Planned net provision in 1998-99 for capital expenditure by local authorities on their own stock is £167 million at 1995-96 prices, compared with £208 million in 1989-90 on the same basis.
Mr. Ross: Given that council house investment declined by 32 per cent. throughout Scotland and by 43 per cent. in Dundee in 1989-1995, and that homelessness is at near record levels, will the Minister follow the recommendation of the Environment Select Committee and set up a comprehensive review of housing need in Scotland?
Mr. Robertson: I remind the hon. Gentleman that provision in Scotland for local authority housing is 25 per cent. higher than in England. All that would be put at risk with a tax-raising Scottish Parliament. Does the hon. Gentleman believe that this House would continue to vote for such substantial sums of money to go to Scottish housing with a tax-raising parliament sitting in Edinburgh?
Mr. Malcolm Bruce: Will the Minister acknowledge that he is telling councils, including Aberdeenshire council, that they must transfer council tenants to private landlords or suffer a drop in capital allocation? In Aberdeenshire, where there is no evidence of anyone willing to take over and where no tenant wishes to be transferred, is that not an unfair penalty which will simply increase the problems of homelessness which have been growing in the north-east in the past 10 years?
Mr. Robertson: The hon. Gentleman is wrong. Capital allocations do not depend on stock transfers. I am saying to the hon. Gentleman, his council and every other council that, if they want to increase substantially investment in social housing in their regions, there is a means to do it and we will do all that we can to help them to do it, but if he is so blinkered by ideology that he will not recognise that, he must answer to his constituents.
Mr. Ian Bruce: What is the position on vacancies in local authority housing in Scotland? Is it similar to that revealed in the written answer that I received yesterday from the Department of the Environment, which said that a high number of private houses are vacant and that, with low inflation and low interest rates, there has never been a better chance for young people to buy a house? Surely the Government are giving such encouragement and we do not want to trap people in local authority houses for the rest of their lives.
Mr. Robertson: My hon. Friend makes a valid point and draws a pertinent comparison with England. I have encouraged local authorities to make use of their vacant
properties and will continue to do so, because while properties remain empty they are of no value to anyone--especially families who are desperate for housing.
Mr. Michael J. Martin: There were vacancies in the multi-storey block of flats that the Minister visited in Sighthill in my constituency, but when the concierge system was introduced there was great demand for those flats. Will the Minister co-operate with local authorities to introduce concierge systems for multi-storey dwellings as quickly as possible? People are entitled to peace and quiet in their homes and to be free from vandalism.
Mr. Robertson: I was most impressed by the housing in the hon. Gentleman's constituency and by the positive response of tenants to the concierge arrangements and to the closed circuit television systems in the hon. Gentleman's constituency and in that of the hon. Member for Dundee, West (Mr. Ross). There is no doubt that that is the way forward, which is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is making substantial sums available for similar systems throughout Scotland. I look forward to visiting many more estates so equipped throughout Scotland during my next two or three years in this job.
Business Rate
6. Mr. Gallie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received on returning the setting of business rate poundage to local authorities; and if he will he make a statement. [34174]
Mr. Kynoch: The Labour party is committed to returning responsibility for the setting of business rates to local authorities.
Mr. Gallie: Does my hon. Friend agree that the drive to a uniform business rate has been at the behest of commerce and industry in Scotland--the job creators? Does my hon. Friend further agree that the abandonment of the uniform business rate would mean job losses and company bankruptcies? That would be the Labour loss for Scotland.
Mr. Kynoch: My hon. Friend is right. Anything that affects the competitiveness of Scottish business would be bad for it and bad for employment in Scotland. Under the uniform business rate, companies have saved £1.4 billion in the five years since 1990. Returning the rate to local authority control would cost Scottish business. Coupled with the tartan tax proposed by Labour, it is no wonder that the new chairman of the Scottish chambers of commerce has stated that such a proposal is utter folly.
Mrs. Fyfe: Why should a Scottish parliament have less control over financial affairs than the smallest district council in Scotland?
Mr. Kynoch: As I understand Labour's proposals, a Scottish parliament would be responsible for raising tax. A Scottish parliament would be funded from south of the border and it is likely, according to the constitution unit, that such a parliament would have to raise taxes or make a significant reduction in services. Tax increases, coupled with any uniform business rate increase, would make Scottish business less competitive. The hon. Lady does
not understand the competitive situation of Scottish business. The sooner she does, the better for Scottish business and the Scottish economy.
Mrs. Ewing: I realise that the Minister is trying desperately to embarrass the Opposition parties, but does he agree that the uniform business rate, because of the valuation arrangements, means that small and medium-sized Scottish enterprises have been paying £1,200 million per annum more than their English counterparts? Should not that difference be immediately eradicated? It is very much a London levy.
Mr. Kynoch: As the hon. Lady knows, the valuation system is now harmonised north and south of the border.
Mr. Kynoch: The hon. Lady shakes her head. I have said on more than one occasion that if anyone can find positive evidence that the system is not harmonised, I shall be happy for the assessors to examine the situation. One problem is that local authorities in Scotland spend 30 per cent. more per head of population than their counterparts south of the border and must therefore be funded to that extent. We have achieved the level playing field north and south of the border that Scottish business wants, and it has welcomed that development. Even the Federation of Small Businesses has said that it does not want the departure from the uniform business rate that the Opposition parties are proposing.
Mr. John Marshall: Does my hon. Friend agree that getting rid of the uniform business rate would be very unfair on business, which would have no say over expenditure by the local council? Is not the hon. Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Mrs. Fyfe) to be congratulated on admitting that a Labour-controlled council and a Labour Scottish Parliament would like to spend more and tax more?
Mr. Kynoch: Yes, my hon. Friend is right. The Opposition, and particularly the Labour party, are intent on trying to find back-door ways of raising taxation so that they can spend even more. At this year's local authority budget setting, one member of the Labour party--the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. McAllion), who seems to be able to stick to his guns--called for an extra £395 million to be spent by local authorities. That money must come from somewhere. I suspect that the Opposition are considering all types of routes to find it, including returning control of the uniform business rate to local authorities and, of course, implementing the proposal for a tartan tax.
Mr. Kirkwood: May I focus the Minister's attention on the problems faced by small retail businesses in market towns across the length and breadth of Scotland? Irrespective of whatever changes there have been and whoever is levying the tax, there are real problems for small family businesses in market town high streets. Will the Minister examine the factors involved in levying rates to determine whether some element of the social and economic context faced by small businesses can be taken into account when setting the assessments on which they pay rates?
Mr. Kynoch: The hon. Gentleman will be aware that we are currently consulting on village shops to try to help local post offices and shops in rural areas. As a part of harmonising the situation north and south of the border, rating authorities may now remit any rate in cases in which ratepayers would otherwise suffer hardship or in which it is in the interest of council taxpayers to do so. So there is some flexibility in the hands of the councils.
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