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: S2W-24060

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 27 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes in the (a) local authority, (b) social rented and (c) private rented sector fail to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and what action is being taken, and within what timescale, to bring these homes up to the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

The most reliable source of figurescurrently available for the Scottish Housing Quality Standard is the 2002 ScottishHouse Condition Survey. It estimated that in 2002 the following (approximate) numberof dwellings failed to meet the Housing Quality Standard:

Local Authority	336,000
Housing Association/Co-operative	165,000
Private rented sector	143,000

All landlords in the social rentedsector are required to ensure that all of their dwellings meet the Scottish HousingQuality Standard by 2015 and were required to submit Scottish Housing Quality StandardDelivery Plans to Communities Scotland detailing their approach to this in April2005.

Although the initial assessmentprocess is complete, Communities Scotland continues to liaise with landlords toaddress gaps in the data and has agreed that some plans can be resubmitted whenbetter stock condition information is available. Exact figures on the number ofdwellings failing to meet the SHQS will be available when this process is complete.

Question reference: S2W-24426

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 24 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the purpose is of the Changing Children’s Services Fund and what sort of social work services it (a) funds and (b) does not fund.

The Changing Children’sServices Fund was established to help local authorities and their partners, includingNHS boards and the voluntary sector, deliver better outcomes for children andyoung people through improving the integration and effectiveness of localservices.

Guidance sets out broadobjectives and criteria for the Fund but local agencies have considerable discretionand flexibility to decide which services should be supported to meet local requirements.The guidance is at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People/children-services/17842/10263.

Question reference: S2W-24061

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much (a) was spent on repairing, renovating, building and otherwise improving Glasgow City Council’s housing stock in each of the five financial years before wholescale housing stock transfer and (b) has been spent by Glasgow Housing Association in each year since transfer expressed in totals, categories and expenditure per unit.

Direct comparisons cannot alwaysbe made between Glasgow City Council (GCC) and the Glasgow Housing Association(GHA) with regard to specific items of expenditure (see footnote to the followingtable).

Glasgow City Council	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Repairs and Maintenance (£ Million)	71	71	76	94	99
(per unit) £	714	746	849	1,111	1,209
Capital Investment Programme (£ Million)	57	56	62	74	80
(per unit) £	578	590	697	877	973
GHA	03/04	04/05
Repairs and Maintenance (£ Million) (incl VAT)	48	57
(per unit) £	617	778
Capital Investment Programme (£ Million)	56	118
(per unit) £	711	1,602

Note: GCC categorise expenditureon a number of items (concierge services, hostels, and revenue contributions tocapital expenditure) within its repairs and maintenance expenditure, none of whichis included in the GHA figures. Also GCC incurred additional repairs and maintenanceexpenditure in 2001-02 and 2002-03 upgrading accommodation for asylum seekers.

Question reference: S2W-24062

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was available to Glasgow City Council to spend on council housing in each of the five years before wholescale housing stock transfer; what level of funding has been available to the Glasgow Housing Association since stock transfer, and what proportion of the budget of each organisation was underspent in each financial year since stock transfer.

Question reference: S2W-24069

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 23 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what average debt burden is borne by graduating students in Scotland and whether it holds this information broken down by specific degree categories.

This information is containedin the survey report Higher and Further Education Students’ Income, Expenditureand Debt 2004-05, published by the Scottish Executive in November 2005.

The average debt on graduationof Scottish undergraduate students expecting to graduate in 2004-05 was £7,561 forthose studying at a higher education institute, and £2,616 for those studying ata college. A further breakdown by degree category is not available. Full detailsare contained in Tables 5.20 and 5.21 of the Higher and Further Education Students’Income, Expenditure and Debt 2004-05 report, available from the Scottish Executive’swebsite at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/llstatistics,see under Publications.

Question reference: S2W-24063

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes in Glasgow are (a) privately owned, (b) privately rented and (c) rented within the housing association sector and how many individuals and/or families are currently (i) registered as homeless and (ii) on housing association and/or council house waiting lists in (1) Glasgow and (2) Scotland.

As at 31 March 2005, therewere an estimated 293,900 dwellings in Glasgow of which 120,195 were housing association dwellings inGlasgow. The Scottish Executive does not hold sufficient information to providereliable estimates of the number of privately rented and privately owned properties.

The following table shows thetenure split of households in Glasgow and Scotland for 2003 and 2004.

Households by Tenure 2003-04(Percentages)

Tenure	Glasgow	Scotland
Owner Occupied	51	65
Private Rented	8	6
Social Rented	39	27
Other	2	2

Source: Scottish Household Survey.

During 2004-05 there were 8,429applications assessed as homeless in Glasgow council, and 34, 603 applications assessed as homelessfor Scotland as a whole.

Figures on households on localauthority housing waiting lists are accessible on-line through the data libraryin the publications and data section of the Scottish Executive housing statisticsbranch website at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.Information as at 31 March 2005 is available in HSG/2005/4.

Question reference: S2W-24064

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new homes will be built in the (a) social rented and (b) local authority sector in each of the next five years and how many were built in each sector in each year since 1997.

The Scottish Executive does notproduce projections of new build. Over the current three year investment period(2005-08) the Executive is committed to funding the provision of 21,500 affordablehomes, just over 16,500 of which will be for social rent.

Figures on new build completionsbroken down by tenure are accessible on-line through the data library in the publicationsand data section of the Scottish Executive housing statistics branch website atwww.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.

The latest published figures,as at 30th September 2005, can be accessed through HSG/2006/1.

Question reference: S2W-24067

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost is to (a) local authorities and (b) socially registered landlords of building an average three-bedroom house with an appropriate garden space.

Question reference: S2W-24065

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average rent level is in the (a) social rented and (b) local authority sector and what the average monthly mortgage payment is in (i) Glasgow and (ii) Scotland.

In 2004-05 the average weeklysecure rent of registered social landlords was £48.54 in Scotland and£50.19 in Glasgow. The average local authority rent for Scotland was£42.64.

The median monthly mortgage paymentof the 6,871 respondents to the Scottish House Condition Survey in 2002 who werebuying with the help of a mortgage was £250 per month for Scotland and£250 per month for the 494 respondents in Glasgow.

The estimated median mortgagepayment in Scotland of the 1,724 respondents to the 2003-04 Family ResourcesSurvey who were buying with the help of a mortgage was £202. Estimates for Glasgoware not available.

Question reference: S2W-24066

Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what Glasgow Housing Association’s current level of debt is and what its projected debt levels are for each of the next five years.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

GHA currently has no loan debt.Based on GHA’s 2006-07 Business Plan the projected debt levels for each of the nextfive years are as follows:

2006-07 - £33.356 million

2007-08 - £134.910 million

2008-09 - £219.569 million

2009-10 - £227.806 million

2010-11 - £348.673 million.

These are cumulative figures.