Chamber and committees

Brownfield land is definedin Scottish Planning Policy 3 (SPP3) as land which has previously beendeveloped. The Scottish Executive does not hold centrally information on thequantity of brownfield land within local authority areas.

A significant proportion ofbrownfield land comprises land designated as vacant or derelict. Informationregarding vacant and derelict land is collected by the Executive and publishedannually in the voluntary Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey (SVDLS) andcan be seen as an indicator of the approximate amount of brownfield land in localauthority areas.

Results from the 2005 SVDLSindicate that out of a total of 853 sites in the Glasgow City Council area:

103 (12%) have lain vacantor derelict since 1980 or earlier

315 (37%) have lain vacantor derelict since 1985 or earlier

390 (46%) have lain vacantor derelict since 1990 or earlier

500 (59%) have lain vacantor derelict since 1995 or earlier.

Further information can befound in the 2005 SVDLS bulletin available on the internet at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/30155550/0.

Previous surveys are alsopublished on the Scottish Executive website.

Note that sites coveringless than 0.1 hectares are excluded from the SVDLS. The information presented includes only that vacantland which is located within an urban settlement with a population of 2,000 ormore.

Information from the 2006Survey will be published in January 2007.

Brownfield land is definedin Scottish Planning Policy 3 (SPP3) as land which has previously beendeveloped. The Scottish Executive does not hold centrally information on thetotal area of brownfield land within local authority areas.

A significant proportion ofbrownfield land comprises land designated as vacant or derelict. Informationregarding vacant and derelict land is collected by the Executive and publishedannually in the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey and can be seen as anindicator of the approximate amount of brownfield land in local authority areas.The most recent survey (2005) is available on the internet at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/30155550/0.Previous surveys are also available on-line at the Scottish Executive website.

The amount of vacant andderelict land in Glasgow City Council area since 1999 is laid out in thefollowing table:

Area of Vacant and Derelict Land(hectares), Glasgow City Council, 1999-2005^1-3

Year of Survey	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Amount of Vacant or Derelict Land (Hectares)	1,558	1,476	1,392	1,372	1,335	1,305	1,313

Notes:

1. Sites covering less than0.1 hectares are excluded.

2. The information presented includes only that vacantland which is located within an urban settlement with a population of 2,000 ormore.

3. Information from the 2006Survey will be published in January 2007.

Further to the information given in response to question S2W-28163, since the Outreach Services team was established in September 2004, 41 community outreach events involving MSPs have been held across Scotland.  The following constituencies have hosted more than one community outreach event since September 2004: Western Isles; Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber; Dundee West; Angus; Galloway and Upper Nithsdale; Gordon; Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; Clydesdale; Ochil.

The Chief Nursing Officer provideda grant to the Care Commission for a period of two years to fund the Nurse ConsultantPost for Older People in a Care Home Sector. The grant was awarded to the Care Commissionto employ one full-time nurse consultant and 0.5 part-time administration assistant.The appointment was taken up on 12 April 2006.

On-going funding, if appropriate,will be considered as part of the future budget negotiations with the Care Commission.

The information requested is set out in the following two tables. The proportions in the tables are estimates derived from (a) the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and (b) the FRS’s Individual Incomes Analysis.

Due to the small sample sizes in the FRS in Scotland, the latest three years of data have been used to derive the proportions. However, the resulting sample was still too small to allow disaggregation for each of the higher income bands requested; the higher bands have therefore been grouped together.

(a) Total Annual Household Income: Households by Income Band, Scotland: 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05¹

Total Household Income	Proportion of Households
Up to £5,000	3%
£5,000 to £10,000	18%
£10,000 to £20,000	29%
£20,000 to £30,000	18%
£30,000 to £40,000	13%
£40,000 to £50,000	8%
£50,000 to £60,000	5%
£60,000 to £80,000	4%
£80,000 to £100,000	2%
£100,000 and over	1%

Source: Family Resources survey 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Note: 1. Total household income is the total income from all sources and from all members of the household, before deductions of income tax and National Insurance, and including tax credits and some benefits in kind. Total household income can not be used as a proxy for living standards as it has not been adjusted (equivalised) to take account of household size and composition.

The following figures should be interpreted with caution and is not regarded as a reliable proxy for living standards. A non-working person, or a person on a low income, living with a high income partner may have a high standard of living despite a very low individual income.

(b) Total Annual Individual Income¹: Adults by Income Band

Scotland: 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05

Total Individual Income	Proportion of Adults
Up to £5,000	20%
£5,000 to £10,000	24%
£10,000 to £20,000	31%
£20,000 to £30,000	14%
£30,000 to £40,000	6%
£40,000 to £50,000	3%
£50,000 and over	2%

Source: Family Resources Survey’s Individual Income Analysis for 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Notes:

1. Excludes any income which is not accrued to the individual in their own right, and also excludes student loans, Social Fund loans and benefits in kind.

Equivalised household income is considered to be the best source of information as a proxy for living standards. Low income estimates for Scotland are available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/95793/0023203.pdf.

Professor Midwinter identifieda number of issues in his briefing note, none of which should result in above inflationcouncil tax rises, although the setting of council tax levels is of course a matterfor individual local authorities.

There are a number of straightforwardreasons why the figures for 2007-08 published in the Draft Budget 2007-08are lower than those for 2006-07 and these have been discussed with Professor Midwinter.

Resources from the local governmentfinance settlement will have increased by almost £3 billion by the end of the currentSpending Review period compared to 1999-2000. Council tax increases in 2006-07 werealso on average the lowest since devolution.

Professor Midwinter had identifieda year-to-year drop in the 2007-08 Draft Budget of £200 million in the levelof grants from the Executive to local government. These grants are provided by variousExecutive Departments and are outwith the core local government finance settlement.There are a number of reasons why the 2007‑08 figures are lower than thosefor 2006-07. For example, some grants are demand-led; some are money transfers tothe core settlement, and in a number of cases funding for 2007-08 had not been confirmedand announced at the time the figures were compiled. As a result, while the publisheddraft budget figures included funding that had been confirmed and announced at thetime they figures were compiled, they do not represent a final position.

Professor Midwinter identifieda number of issues in his briefing note for the Finance Committee none of whichshould adversely affect local authorities’ abilities to provide frontline services.There are a number of straightforward reasons why the 2007‑08 figures arelower than those for 2006-07 and these have been discussed with Professor Midwinter.Resources from the local government finance settlement will have increased by almost£3 billion by the end of the current Spending Review period compared to 1999-2000.

The preferred source forearnings estimates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which iscarried out by the Office for National Statistics.

Earnings estimates are notavailable for employees within public agencies and non-departmental bodiesspecifically. However, estimates are available for central government employeejobs and local authority employee jobs.

Table 1 shows the grossannual median earnings, the annual pay below which the bottom twenty per centof employees earn, the annual pay above which the top twenty per cent ofemployees earn and the bottom twenty per cent pay as a proportion of the toptwenty percent pay, which gives an indication of the pay differential. Allestimates are based on those in full-time employee jobs.

Table 1 Annual Gross Pay (£)for Full-time Employee Jobs¹, Scotland, 2005

Public Sector Status	Median2 Annual Pay	Bottom 20% earn below	Top 20% earn above	Bottom pay as a proportion of Top pay
Central Government	£22,626	£15,033	£31,667	47.5%
Local Authority	£24,423	£16,355	£32,226	50.8%

Source:Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

1. Employeeson adult rates who have been in the same job for more than a year.

2. The median is the value below which50 per cent of employee jobs fall. It is preferred over an arithmetic averagefor earnings data as it is influenced less by large or extremevalues.

3. The estimates in the table are based on a sample survey, and as such,are subject to sampling error.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-27162, answered on 25 July 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.