Chamber and committees

Not all of Scotland’s manufacturing is in decline, some companies are atthe cutting edge in terms of design, innovation and technology. The Scottish Governmentprovides a range of support to manufacturing companies in Scotland. Where redundancies do occur, our Partnership Actionfor Continuing Employment framework provides support, advice and guidance on a widerange of retraining and upskilling opportunities to help employees, including thosein the manufacturing sector, access alternative employment. This comprehensive supportis tailored to meet individual needs and local circumstances and includes: JobcentrePlus services; one-to-one counselling; access to high-quality training; seminarson skills such as CV writing and starting a business, and access to IT facilities.

The report to Parliamentin September 2006 on the effect of the right to buy concluded that the full impactof the changes arising from the 2001 Housing Act would not begin to be known untilafter September 2007. We intend to monitor closely the emerging pattern of salesto tenants who have completed their qualifying periods under the modernisedright to buy over the coming months. The impact of right to buy sales varies fromone locality to another. We will be examining whether there are ways to make thepolicy more responsive to local needs; balancing the opportunities for homeownershipagainst the pressure on affordable housing locally.

The Scottish Governmentenjoys good bilateral relations with Northern Ireland. Weintend to work together drawing from each other’s strengths and experiences; sharingknowledge where we have a common interest.

The Scottish Governmentrecognises the strong historical and cultural bond that exists between the peopleof Scotland and Northern Ireland and we are committed to working with the Northern IrelandAssembly government to build on this relationship. The First Minister signed a jointstatement with Northern Ireland’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister on June18 2007 which commits the two governments to consolidating and strengthening thesocial, educational and cultural relationship between the two countries.

Historic Scotlandare actively engaged in raising awareness of cultural and historic links betweenScotland and Northern Ireland. The Scottish government is also raising awarenessof common cultural and historical links between Scotland and Northern Ireland through the promotion of minority languageinitiatives. There is significant minority language activity in both Scotland and Northern Ireland at present and frequentcontact and discussions take place between both jurisdictions.

This is a decisionfor South Lanarkshire Council which has a statutory responsibility to provide andmaintain school buildings.

The government’s commitmentto freeze council tax levels at 2007-08 levels will be taken forward as part of the Spending Review. The outcome of the Spending Review will be announced laterthis year. Discussions with local government are on-going as to how best the counciltax freeze can be achieved.

The timetable (actualand estimated) for the completion of new school buildings under PPP schemes canbe found on the Scottish Executive Financial Partnerships Unit’s website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/futuredealsfor those schools PPP projects in procurement and at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/donedealsfor those schools PPP projects which have reached financial close.

A housing supply comprisinga mix of different tenures that meets the housing needs of a range of householdsis one of the many conditions required to create sustainable mixed communities.The Scottish Government’s forthcoming consultation on social housing will includeproposals aimed at improving the integration of social housing and other tenures.

I refer the memberto answer to question S3W-1134 on 26 June 2007. Following consideration of the material referred to,conclusions will be published.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The last progressreport on implementation of the recommendations of the Homelessness Task Force isavailable on the Scottish Government website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Housing/homeless/H-M-G/HMG23HTFandHMGprioritiesandhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Housing/homeless/H-M-G/HMG23HTFandHMGprioritiesa.