Inclusion Scotland

Parliamentary Questions

Housing

June 2009

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was made available for each local authority to carry out home improvement grants from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10.

Alex Neil: 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.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it determines levels of funding for local authorities in terms of home improvements.

Alex Neil: 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.

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.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many households applied for home improvement grants in each year from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10, broken down by local authority.

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

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many households were awarded home improvement grants in each year from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10, broken down by local authority.

Alex Neil: 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.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the proposed Scheme of Assistance, in place of home improvement grants, will provide direct financial assistance to homeowners.

Alex Neil: 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.

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses bought from the private sector through the accelerated housing funding do not meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

Alex Neil: Fifteen of the total 184 homes bought through the accelerated programme did not meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard at the time of purchase. These 15 homes were former Ministry of Defence Properties and their quality was reflected in their purchase price. These houses have since had new heating systems, kitchens and insulation and will meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard when let in late July 2009.

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses bought from the private sector through the accelerated housing funding do not meet Housing for Varying Needs standards or the building regulations that came into force in 2007.

Alex Neil: Eighty-nine of the 184 homes bought "Off the Shelf" through the accelerated Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) funding did not meet either Housing for Varying Needs Standards or 2007 Building Regulations.

The areas of non-compliance were assessed as being of low concern when letting for general use and the homes were in areas of high demand and supported by the relevant local authorities. Examples of non-compliance were areas such as electrical socket heights and drying area provision. Where there were opportunities to increase compliance, as units were still on site being completed, these were maximised.

January 2009

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-16514 by Stewart Maxwell on 6 October 2008, whether it will list the amounts allocated to housing associations for home adaptations for disabled people in (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2008 to date, broken down by housing association.

Stewart Maxwell: We do not centrally record the amount of funding allocated to housing associations for home adaptations for disabled people. However, we do record the actual amounts spent by housing associations on home adaptations. The figures for 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008 to date broken down by housing association are as follows:

Adaptation Spend by Housing Association from 2006-07 to 2008-09 (to 13 January 2009)

Note: *It should be noted that the actual spend figures for 2006-07 and 2007-08 differ from those provided in S3W-16514 due to coding errors.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will establish a separate funding allocation for medical adaptations in housing association properties.

Stewart Maxwell: We have no plans to establish a separate funding allocation.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that funding for medical adaptations in housing association properties is given sufficient priority.

Stewart Maxwell: The need for medical adaptations reflects demand and can vary from year to year. Programme agreements with Registered Social Landlords make clear Scottish Government’s readiness to agree arrangements that ensure that medical adaptations can be prioritised.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that allocating small but significant funds for the purpose of supporting medical adaptations in housing association properties would benefit many residents throughout Scotland, allowing people to stay in their own homes for longer.

Stewart Maxwell: We recognise the benefit which can flow from adapting houses, allowing people to stay in their own homes for longer. In allocating resources for this purpose, Scottish Government has to take account of overall funding available and competing priorities including pressure for additional new homes and also the capacity of the housing association to meet or contribute to the cost.

Michael McMahon (Hamilton North and Bellshill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how its work on the Getting Fit for the Future programme took account of the current and projected need for accessible housing and what is being done to meet this need.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Getting Fit for the Future programme centred on the modernisation and sustainability of health care service delivery in the Borders. The need for community care housing and the best way of meeting this can only properly be addressed at local level. I have been advised by NHS Borders that the current and projected need for accessible housing was not an issue raised directly during the programme. However, NHS Borders works closely with their partners through joint planning and initiatives to support more people to lead independent lives in the community.

July 2007 

Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that private house builders and developers make a proportion of their new builds barrier-free.

Mr Stewart Stevenson:  I have asked Dr. Paul Stollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer. His response is as follows:

“Improved building standards came into force on 1 May 2007 and require that all new dwellings, where it is reasonably practicable to do so, must be designed to a ‘liveability’ standard that was based upon and developed from Communities Scotland’s Housing for Varying Needs and the Joseph Rowntree Lifetime Homes Standards.

The main changes were:

• improved accessibility throughout all levels in a dwelling, including wider doors and corridors;
• increased area for an apartment, kitchen and bathroom on the same level;
• flexibility built into the design to allow ease of adaptability in the future;
• reduced ramp lengths and enhanced guidance on accessibility to all dwellings.”

August 2007

Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many wheelchair-accessible and barrier-free homes have been built by housing associations in each of the last five years.

Stewart Maxwell : : The concept of "barrier free" housing is now covered by Housing for Varying Needs standard. The number of homes built by housing associations which meet Housing for Varying Needs standards for which we have approved grant funding over the last five years is as follows:

The number of wheelchair homes built by housing associations for which we have approved grant over the same period is as follows:

August 2007

Jamie Hepburn (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many wheelchair users are estimated to be living in social rented accommodation.

Stewart Maxwell: NHS Scotland wheelchair services are provided from five regional centres and independent report Moving forward: Review of NHS wheelchair and seating services in Scotland published in 2006 reports some 96,000 users registered with these centres in 2005:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/127201/0030495.pdf.

This will include users living in communal establishments, such as nursing homes, and people with differing levels of use, from complete dependency to very occasional use. However, there is wide variation between the figures reported by individual centres in the number of registered users per head of population.

This is in part due to regional differences in identifying and recording the more "active" users as distinct from "registered" users. In addition, a number of users obtain services from private providers rather than the NHS. Such users will not be included in the figures provided by the regional centres.

There is no direct estimate of the number of wheelchair users living in social rented accommodation. The Scottish Household Survey gives an indication of the tenure of respondents in private households who use wheelchairs. The most recent data available for 2005 and 2006 show some 46% of wheelchair users were living in social rented accommodation, representing about 2% of respondents in the sector (data from two years have been combined due to small base numbers).

Changes in building regulations over the past few years have lead to increased accessibility of the more recent mainstream new build, particularly in the social sector, resulting in higher levels of barrier-free housing which can more readily be adapted to meet the particular needs of wheelchair users.