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Draft Legislative Programme

I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister will have heard what my hon. Friend has just said and will take on board his helpful comments. The Government have announced proposals that will have beneficial consequences for housing provision in Scotland, as well as in the rest of the UK. There are other ways in which the UK Government can help my constituents and people elsewhere in Scotland to get on to the housing ladder, not least by using the influence that the Government have with the big banks and financial institutions to find funds at favourable rates to build new houses for first-time buyers and affordable housing. A lot can by done by the financial institutions themselves—for example, by promoting shared equity, which can certainly be encouraged in Scotland, as much as elsewhere in the UK, by the Government’s actions. I hope that the Minister will take the opportunity when she replies to the debate to make it clear that the Government’s decision, and the Prime Minister’s announcement, that they will make housing a top priority applies to the whole UK, not just to England and Wales. I want the Government and the Scottish Executive to work together constructively to ensure that housing is a priority throughout all the nations of the UK. I hope that the Scottish Executive will make as radical a commitment to affordable housing in areas such as mine in Edinburgh as the UK Government have made for England. I also hope that the Scottish Executive will take advantage of the new measures announced by the UK Government, to which I have just referred, to ensure that my constituents can benefit from the same type of ambitious programme that I am pleased to say the Government have announced for the rest of the UK. Mention was also made by colleagues in the earlier discussions of the planning gain proposals in the draft programme. Again, as my hon. Friend the Minister will know, that legislation will be taken forward on a UK basis. There is some debate in England and Wales about the degree to which the funds raised by the planning gain supplement, if it is introduced, will be applied locally, as opposed to centrally. It is clear that, in England at least, by far the biggest proportion of any funds raised under the planning gain supplement will be spent locally to provide for local housing and infrastructure needs. Although things may have moved forward, the proposals last year provided that in Scotland, the funds would be allocated directly to the Scottish Executive, with no provision to allocate them to the areas in which they were raised. When we have an Administration in Scotland who have proposed lots of spending plans without the means of paying for them, we have an Administration who are certainly very ready to take any extra finances made available to them, although those finances would be raised from local communities. I hope that a similar commitment to ensure that funds raised from local communities will be applied for their benefit will apply to Scotland as well. I hope that that Minister will take on board that point in the discussions on the planning gain supplement proposal.