Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-35813

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-32230 by Alex Neil on 16 March 2010, when the method of recording housing support data will be published

The methodology to be used will be published once this has been agreed by the short-life working group. At its April meeting members of the working group asked Scottish Government statisticians to consult with the Care Commission to identify whether the Care Commission annual statistical return could be used to gather the information needed. The working group will consider a report back on these discussions at its next meeting at the end of September or early October. Other options are also being considered. The minutes of meetings of the working group and papers providing detailed discussions on the merits of different options are available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/SurveySupportingPeople.

Question reference: S3W-35788

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the National Housing Trust initiative will produce guidance on the conditions under which a mid-market rent for a householder would be terminated.

Question reference: S3W-35786

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the National Housing Trust initiative will produce guidance on how to achieve the numerical balance between houses for mid-market rent and other social rented houses in housing developments.

It is for participating local authorities, in discussion with the Scottish Government (SG), to lead on and determine the appropriate balance between the provision of intermediate rented homes through the National Housing Trust initiative (NHT) and the provisions of social rented housing throughout their area, based on evidence from their Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDAs).The SG does not feel that guidance is required in relation to this, beyond the guidance already provided to local authorities by the SG on the preparation of Local Housing Strategies and HNDAs. This guidance is available on the SG website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk.

Question reference: S3W-35785

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the National Housing Trust initiative will produce guidance on how houses for mid-market rent will be physically integrated with other social rented housing in housing developments.

The purpose of the National Housing Trust initiative (NHT) is to make additional private rented housing available at intermediate rent levels. It is not aimed at providing social rented homes. In some cases NHT homes may be provided on sites where there is social housing, but in others there may not be any social housing on the site. Proposed sites will be assessed by local authorities and the Scottish Futures Trust on the basis of the suitability and location of the homes for NHT and so guidance will not be required on physical integration of NHT homes with social rented housing.

Question reference: S3W-35787

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the National Housing Trust initiative will produce guidance on the level of specification for houses designated as being for mid-market rent in housing developments.

Question reference: S3W-35815

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 9 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the rent arrears in each housing association was in (a) 2008-09 and (b) 2009-10

I have asked Michael Cameron, Acting Chief Executive of the Scottish Housing Regulator to respond.

His response is as follows:

The information relating to rent arrears in registered housing associations for 2008/09 is available from tables published on our website:

http://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/shr_statisticstables2008-09.hcsp#TopOfPage.

Table A4a covers gross rent arrears for both current and former tenants by housing association.

The information relating to 2009-10 is due for publication at the end of September and will be available through the link.

Question reference: S3W-35984

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 8,092 units completed under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme in 2009-10 were off-the-shelf purchases from private developers.

Question reference: S3W-35985

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the 8,092 units completed under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme in 2009-10 were refurbishments

Question reference: S3W-35789

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 August 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been progress in defining how the hub model for distribution of funding will operate under the Housing Options programme.

The members of each local authority grouping (or hub) will identify and cost their own priorities and submit an action plan which will be considered by the Scottish Government/COSLA 2012 Steering Group.

Initial discussions on how the hubs will proceed will take place at five regional seminars organised for this purpose. These are jointly facilitated by Scottish Government and those local authorities who have indicated their willingness to consider being a lead authority within the hub.

The five seminars are scheduled to take place in North Ayrshire, Highland, Perth and Kinross, East Dunbartonshire and City of Edinburgh over August and September.

Question reference: S3W-35385

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 August 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the purchase price and planned cost per unit was for the 41 housing sites acquired by Registered Social Landlords (RSL) that required support in 2009-10 under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme, broken down by RSL.

The purchase price per planned unit for the 41 sites acquired by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) that required support in 2009-10 under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP), broken down by RSL are detailed in the following table. The planned cost per unit is not available for all sites due to development of these sites being future dated. Publication of estimated costs where available may prejudice the tender process and can therefore not be shared at this time. Information supplied, therefore, relates to total costs of units which have reached tender approval. Those projects which have not reached tender approval are marked not available - n/a.

RSL	Planned Units at Purchase	Purchase Price £	Cost for Land Per Planned Unit £	Total Cost per Unit at Tender Approval £
Rural Stirling	60	530,000	8,833	n/a
Rural Stirling	6	35,000	5,833	146,139
Rural Stirling	14	130,369	9,312	123,520
Eildon	18	450,000	25,000	n/a
Kingdom	28	0	0	86,430
Kingdom	8	140,000	17,500	149,346
Dunedin Canmore	8	190,000	23,750	129,140

RSL	Planned Units at Purchase	Purchase Price £	Cost for Land Per Planned Unit £	Total Cost per Unit at Tender Approval £
Dunedin Canmore	8	200,000	25,000	120,819
Dunedin Canmore	5	125,000	25,000	121,609
East Lothian HA	11	232,526	21,139	125,980
East Lothian HA	28	560,000	20,000	123,069
Castle Rock	30	130,000	4,333	n/a
Dunedin Canmore	36	400,000	11,111	n/a
Dunedin Canmore	12	202,600	16,883	n/a
Port of Leith	15	265,000	17,667	115,654
Viewpoint	32	560,000	17,500	119,055
Hillcrest	49	636,250	12,985	126,719
Hillcrest	42	613,750	14,613	135,467
Cairn	8	160,000	20,000	116,661
Cairn	18	286,000	15,889	n/a
Orkney	2	28,000	14,000	217,164
Hjaltland	2	13,500	6,750	n/a
Hebridean Housing Partnership	18	95,000	5,278	125,958
Hebridean Housing Partnership	28	250,000	8,929	n/a

RSL	Planned Units at Purchase	Purchase Price £	Cost for Land Per Planned Unit £	Total Cost per Unit at Tender Approval £
Castle Rock Edinvar	37	49,634	1,341	n/a
Castle Rock Edinvar	6	5,368	895	n/a
Clyde Valley	99	2,500,001	25,253	128,463
Clyde Valley	34	775,000	22,794	130,458
Clyde Valley	31	500,000	16,129	n/a
Loreburn	22	330,000	15,000	131,941
Loreburn	11	66,000	6,000	143,450
Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership	16	320,530	20,033	137,720
Maryhill	52	140,000	2,692	129,535
North Glasgow	72	937,866	13,026	n/a
Maryhill	25	70,000	2,800	173,726
Thenew	18	232,500	12,917	n/a
Thenew	18	195,000	10,833	174,116
Whiteinch & Scotstoun	15	127,000	8,467	122,841
Hanover HA	16	195,000	12,188	122,947
Williamsburgh HA	60	435,000	7,250	120,331
Dalmuir Park HA	16	417,500	26,094	n/a
Total	1,034	£13,529,394	£13,085

Total costs can vary due to a number of factors including the quality of site conditions, location, size and type of housing being constructed.