Chamber and committees

The SmallBusiness Bonus Scheme will provide relief from business rates for all smallbusinesses with properties whose combined rateable value is £15,000 or less(subject to eligibility). Inclusion in the scheme does not depend on evidenceof any other factor.

As announced inthe Spending Review last week the planned allocation of resource to fuelpoverty programmes in each of the years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 is £45.9million. The Autumn Budget Revision also made available an additional £14 millionfor the central heating programme and Warm Deal in 2007-08.

Firm Foundations:the future of housing in Scotland includes the Scottish Government’s proposalsto introduce legislation that would establish a new, independent regulatory bodyfor social housing. The government will decide whether to proceed with that proposal,and if so in what manner, in light of the responses it receives to Firm Foundationsand its response to the recommendations of the Crerar Review.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-6094 on 14 November 2007, when I advised that it would not be appropriate to releasecopies of correspondence received from stakeholders whilst the review of sportscotlandis still actively under consideration.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.

In our Scottish Budget,we set out our spending plans prioritised to meet the overarching purpose of government– to increase the level of sustainable economic growth and deliver on our five strategicobjectives. This is a new joined up approach to public spending.

Providing direct grantsto first-time buyers is one of the proposals set out in our discussion documentFirm Foundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland which was published on31 October. We are considering this as a potential future element of the Low-costInitiative for First-Time buyers (LIFT). We are inviting comments on the proposalthrough the Firm Foundations consultation exercise. The normal Scottish Government consultation timescalesapply. Therefore the consultation period runs until 25 January 2008.

Officials are currentlyworking on the detail of the review. When the review is complete I look forwardto discussing our future approach to fuel poverty with stakeholders including theLocal Government and Communities Committee. I would expect the review to be completedin the New Year and I would hope to discuss with the committee thereafter.

Providing direct grantsto first-time buyers is one of the proposals set out in our discussion documentFirm Foundations: The Future of Housing in Scotland which was published on31 October 2007. We are seeking views on direct grants aspart of the Firm Foundations consultation exercise.

We have provided some 1,500 stakeholders with electronicor hard copies of Firm Foundations inviting them to submit their commentson our proposals by the deadline of 25 January 2008. The stakeholders include MSPs, local authorities, tenants’representative organisations, registered social landlords, voluntary, charity andequality groups, professional and representative bodies, academic institutions,government agencies and public bodies. The consultation exercise is also open tothe general public and can be found on the Scottish Government’s website at:

Firm Foundations:The Future of Housing in Scotland: A discussion document.

The consultation exerciseon the government’s discussion document Firm Foundations: The Future of Housingin Scotland asks “should the government provide direct cash grants to first-timebuyers”. We are seeking responses on grants to first-time buyers because we wantto take account of the range of views being expressed to inform development of LIFT(Low Cost Initiative for First-time Buyers) in the future.

The government’s spendingplans for the period 2008-11 were announced on 14 November. Within the tightest settlement for Scotland since devolution, our plans set out how we will fulfil our purpose, achieve our strategicobjectives and deliver for the people of Scotland across all expenditure programmes. As part of our new relationship withlocal government, maximising efficiencies at the local level through graduallyreducing the burden associated with the administration and auditing of separatefunding streams, the Supporting People budget has been transferred into thelocal government finance settlement, with significantly enhanced flexibilitieson how it can best be used to support individual clients.