Chamber and committees

This information is available on the Scottish Government website “ Housing Statistics for Scotland “ Private Sector Housing Improvement and Repair Grants:

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

From 2005-06 to 2009-10, the Scottish Government has made available the amounts shown in the following table to each local authority by means of Private Sector Housing Grant, for investment in private sector housing within their area. The funding is available, not only for home improvements, but also for other assistance such as repairs and disabled adaptations and non-grant investment such as providing information and advice and funding local Care and Repair organisations. The proportion of funding spent on each form of assistance is at the discretion of local authorities in line with local and national priorities.

Local Authority	2005-06 (£ Million)	2006-07 (£ Million)	2007-08 (£ Million)	2008-09 (£ Million)	2009-10 (£ Million)
Aberdeen City	2.857	2.775	3.404	2.784	2.788
Aberdeenshire	1.574	2.562	1.583	1.220	1.331
Angus	1.047	1.500	1.301	1.047	1.056
Argyll and Bute	3.549	3.826	3.997	3.182	3.066
Clackmannan	0.560	0.576	0.716	0.537	0.517
Dumfries Galloway	3.555	4.459	2.808	2.200	2.165
Dundee	2.386	2.532	2.701	2.190	2.171
East Ayrshire	1.895	1.414	1.217	0.961	0.981
East Dunbarton	0.797	1.003	1.009	0.787	0.839
East Lothian	1.196	1.810	1.857	1.363	1.328
East Renfrew	0.887	0.863	0.795	0.555	0.594
Edinburgh	7.806	7.633	8.789	6.996	7.173
Eilean Siar	4.377	4.303	4.539	3.326	3.155
Falkirk	0.761	1.258	1.380	1.008	1.022
Fife	1.775	2.374	1.813	1.415	1.611
Glasgow	11.461	11.874	13.075	10.664	10.609
Highland	5.226	5.737	5.484	4.354	4.253
Inverclyde	1.277	1.367	1.599	1.199	1.178
Midlothian	0.296	0.711	0.649	0.514	0.522
Moray	1.119	1.541	1.588	1.280	1.248
North Ayrshire	1.711	2.034	1.501	1.216	1.224
North Lanark	5.017	3.574	3.940	2.561	2.620
Orkney	1.396	1.445	1.427	1.124	1.072
Perth and Kinross	1.917	2.310	2.181	1.760	1.750
Renfrewshire	2.149	2.065	2.218	1.704	1.759
Scottish Borders	1.893	1.713	1.551	1.262	1.253
Shetland	0.956	1.978	1.469	0.981	0.926
South Ayrshire	1.107	1.676	1.475	1.166	1.195
South Lanark	5.193	8.642	6.344	4.775	4.771
Stirling	1.205	1.129	1.426	1.168	1.131
West Dunbarton	1.656	1.357	1.246	0.818	0.808
West Lothian	1.224	1.592	1.552	1.218	1.219
Total	79.825	89.633	86.634	67.335	67.335

 

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Local authorities are not required to record this information.

Private Sector Housing Grant (PSHG) is allocated to local authorities on the basis of a formula, made up of two distinct parts. The first is calculated on the basis of a five-year rolling average of past years'' expenditure data. The second is based on a statistical needs-based formula. The formula was updated by agreement with COSLA to put greater emphasis on the needs-based element and to move from a previous historic needs-based split of 70:30 to a 50:50 weighting respectively over a five year phasing-in period starting in 2009-10.

The needs-based element is based on a primary factor and several secondary factors are listed.

Primary Factor	Stock numbers failing the Scottish Housing Quality Standard
Secondary Factors	Average cost of repairs, % of flatted accommodation, number of households with person over 75, number of households with person sick or disabled, and ability to pay based on % of mortgage debt and number of households on low income

 

The ring fencing around PSHG will be removed from 2010-11 but the funding stream will continue to be separately identifiable within the overall funding stream to local authorities until the end of the five year phasing-in period.

In terms of section 72 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, each local authority must decide and publish its criteria for assisting home owners, and in some cases tenants, with the repair, maintenance and improvement of houses and with adaptations to houses to suit the needs of disabled occupants. The powers that support this ˜scheme of assistance'' approach came into force in April 2009 and will run in parallel with the previous system of improvement and repair grants until 31 March 2010 when the latter will be repealed.

Under the new regime, local authorities will be able to provide a wider range of assistance from information, advice, and practical assistance to loans and grants. For adaptations, grant is mandatory in most cases where there is a priority need linked to a disability. For other works, statutory guidance makes it clear that grant is still an option although we encourage local authorities to design their criteria so that, in general, other forms of assistance are provided unless grant is needed in order to ensure that priority works are carried out. Where a local authority issues a work notice to enforce necessary works, the authority will be obliged to offer assistance, but it retains discretion over the exact form of help offered.

Transport Scotland has taken account of the growth predictions outlined in the business case for the Airdrie to Bathgate project, as well as Network Rail''s Route Utilisation Strategy in the planning of rolling stock procurement.

The updated business case which was revised in December 2008 indicates that during the busiest time of day between 7 am and 7 pm additional passenger boardings are anticipated to be 13,878.

Transport Scotland remains committed to ensuring that sufficient supplies of trains are provided to meet projected passenger demand on the Scottish Rail network and continues to work with the franchisee on meeting demand.

The procurement of rolling stock is being managed and funded by First ScotRail through the terms of the recent Franchise Extension. The anticipated additional cost of train provision on Airdrie to Bathgate is consistent with business case assumptions, but the amount is commercially confidential.

An additional 38 electric trains are being procured for Scotland. The new trains will operate primarily on Ayrshire and Inverclyde but will provide an overall increase in the electric rolling stock fleet that will enable the delivery of planned new services on Airdrie to Bathgate rail link through the redeployment of existing trains.

It is currently proposed to utilise the class 334 Juniper type electrical multiple unit for services east of Airdrie to Edinburgh Waverley via Bathgate, the seating and number of coaches are as follows:

(a) 183 standard class seats.

(b) Three coach units.

It should be noted that a number of peak services will operate as 2x3 coach units.

It is currently proposed to utilise the class 334 Juniper type electrical multiple unit for all services east of Airdrie to Edinburgh Waverley via Bathgate. This is subject to discussion and agreement with the current franchise operator, First ScotRail.

The trains used on the Helensburgh to Airdrie line are part of a larger fleet which works the North Clyde network. Therefore carriage and seat numbers are not available specifically for the Helensburgh to Airdrie Line. The number of carriages in the North Clyde fleet is 99 and these are equipped with 5,772 seats. The trains used on this service are either in three or six carriage formation. Seating varies between train types, and the number of seats per three carriage train varies between 183 and 219.