Chamber and committees

East Dunbartonshire Council, as the strategic housing authorityfor Bearsden and Milngavie, has statutory responsibility for assessing and addressing local housing marketneeds, including shortages of affordable housing in the area. In its mostrecent housing needs assessment (2005) it identified an annual need for an additional79 affordable units in Bearsden and eight in Milngavie over the next five yearsto 2010.

In our recently publisheddiscussion document, Firm Foundations: the Future of Housing in Scotlandwe have set out proposals for improving the supply and choice of affordable housingnationally. Last month’s Spending Review announcement set out plans to invest over£1.5 billion in affordable housing over the next three years. The Scottish Governmentexpects that this increased budget will deliver more new affordable homes – includingsocial rented houses and houses for low cost home ownership – than planned for 2005-08.Decisions have yet to be takenon the detailed composition of the affordable housing investment programme for thenew spending review period, 2008-11.

I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-4254 on 21 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Governmentrecognises the important part that the public sector has to play in reducing Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions. It has not yet been determinedhow the proposed Climate Change Bill will take this into account but the forthcomingconsultation will seek views on various measures that will enable the wider publicsector, including local authorities, Executive agencies and non-departmental publicbodies, to reduce their emissions.

The Scottish Governmentdid not issue a press release entitled “It’s Time for Real Action on Climate Change”on 30 October 2007.

As an SNP press releaseexactly a year earlier made clear, lead responsibility for cross border rail serviceslies with the Secretary of State for Transport. However, improving journey timesbetween Scotland and England, with connections to mainland Europe throughthe Channel Tunnel Rail Link is an aspiration of the Scottish Government. We willcontinue to work with the Department for Transport to achieve faster journeys betweenScotland and England and will consider the most appropriate transport solutionsfor Scotland and its economy through the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR).

The ScottishGovernment will be issuing a consultation in January on proposals for the ClimateChange Bill which will include a target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050. Achievingsuch an ambitious target willrequire action by all sectors. The most effective way to mitigate climate changeis by avoiding and reducing emissions. To this end we are working with the businesssector in a number of areas to reduce its emissions including: support of the recentBusiness Summit on Climate Change; working with the Climate Change Business DeliveryGroup; funding the Carbon Trust to assist businesses to reduce their carbon emissions;funding Loan Action Scotland (a loan scheme for small and medium-sizedenterprises to deliver energy efficiency projects), and, importantly, on implementationof the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment.

Amongst the manypress statements and comments I have made about progress on existing trunk roadprojects and our planning for the future I have always been clear that we willpress ahead with more than 40 major projects in the current programme to 2012.I have been equally clear that new investment will emerge from the StrategicTransport Projects Review which is due to report to ministers next summer.

Details andtimescales for our major and important planned road projects can be found onthe Transport Scotland website at:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/uploads/documents/Scottish-Motorways-Trunk-Road-Programme-June2007-final.pdf.

As part of the newpartnership arrangements, the Scottish Government is seeking to agree there willbe a move to a Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) for every local authority based onan agreed set of national outcomes and indicators. SOAs are expected to be in placefor all authorities during 2008-09.

The Scottish Governmentwill work with local government on a new performance reporting system to underpinthe move to SOAs, which will replace over time the myriad of existing systems andwill provide regular reports to the Scottish Government on progress. Further detailson these new arrangements can be found in the Scottish Budget Report and relatedconcordat with local government. The concordat also sets the full package of measuresagreed, including the delivery of specific manifesto commitments. Copies of bothdocuments are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers44076 and 44077 respectively).

Currently there areno non-stop services running between Haymarket and Glasgow Queen Street.

The proposed improvementsto the Edinburgh and Glasgow route include the possibility of a service increasefrom the current four trains per hour each way to six trains per hour each way.One option being considered is that two of these services could be “fast” non-stopservices and achieve a journey time of around 35 minutes.

Timetable analysisto date suggests a mix of “fast” non-stop and stopping” services between Edinburghand Glasgow will address the need for a fast end-to-end service whilst also takingcare of the needs of intermediate communities along the route using local stations.Further detailed timetabling and economic assessment work will be carried out asthe programme progresses.

Decisions to becomecarbon neutral are for individual local authorities and agencies and there are presentlyno plans to produce Scottish Government guidance.

The Scottish Government supports the Sustainable ScotlandNetwork (SSN) to provide assistance to local authorities in meeting their commitmentsin Scotland’s Climate Change Declaration, including reducingemissions from their own operations. Carbon neutrality was covered at the SSN annualconference in November, and the proceedings from this event are available on theSSN website at www.sustainable-scotland.net.

As part of our workto deliver this government’s strategic objectives, in particular securing a Greenerand Wealthier and Fairer Scotland, consideration is being given to how other publicbodies can be supported to deliver a contribution to our climate change objectives.

The proposals arefor an electrified railway. On average electric trains are responsible for in theorder of 15% less carbon emissions than equivalent diesel trains and emissions ata local level (along the route and in stations) are virtually zero. Modern electrictrains also use power more efficiently as they are fitted with systems which, whilstbraking, regenerate electricity and recycle energy back into the supply grid.