Chamber and committees

It is a standard condition of grant for all new build by registered social landlords that Housing for Varying Needs essential features will be provided. This will apply to new build by registered social landlords supported by the advance of £100 million in the same way as it applies to the rest of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme.

It is a standard condition of grant for all new build by registered social landlords that Housing for Varying Needs essential features will be provided. This will apply to new build by registered social landlords supported by the advance of £100 million in the same way as it applies to the rest of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme.

Compliance with grant conditions is monitored as part of Post Completion Reviews.

A formal equalities impact assessment was not carried out on the decision to advance up to £100 million under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP). It was necessary for the Scottish Government to act swiftly in response to the changing economic climate, and acceleration of AHIP was part of this package of actions. The bulk of the funding will be used to accelerate projects or acquire land for future projects which will meet needs defined in local housing strategies and which will comply with our usual grant conditions on accessibility. Where funding is sought to support purchase by registered social landlords of completed houses built by private developers these will either meet the improved accessibility measures in the 2007 building regulations or else a special case will have to be made.

Preliminary work is progressing in taking forward improvement schemes from the A82 Route Action Plan to improve safety and speed up journey times.

Future investment in Scotland''s nationally strategic transport network is being considered as part of Transport Scotland''s Strategic Transport Projects Review, which will lead to a transport programme targeted at facilitating better movement of people and goods across Scotland to increase wealth and enable more people to share fairly in that wealth.

The Erskine Bridge is undergoing a phased major maintenance programme which is expected to continue for a number of years. This includes some minor upgrading of elements of the structure.

The measures to enable closure of the Erskine Bridge to high-sided vehicles only have been very successful since first implementation on 11 October 2007. There have been 10 occasions when the bridge was closed to high-sided vehicles, and only two occasions when a full closure was deemed necessary.

Traffic flows for the Erskine Bridge since 1999, expressed as both annual average daily flow (AADF) and annual total are as follows:

Year	AADF	Annual Total
1999	22,667	8,273,455
2000	23,689	8,646,485
2001	24,778	9,043,970
2002	26,210	9,566,650
2003	26,585	9,703,525
2004	27,490	10,033,850
2005	27,217	9,934,205
2006	32,385	11,820,525
2007	34,878	12,730,470
2008	36,402	13,286,730

 

The Steering Group plans to report to ministers towards the end of this year.

We don''t intend to introduce any restrictions to the number of journeys per day that those who currently benefit from the scheme can already make.

From January 2007 to August 2008 inclusive, 33,442 met the qualifying criteria and proceeded to the survey stage. Entitlement is then confirmed during the survey stage in the applicant''s home.