MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY SCOTTISH HOMES

That this House is outraged that Scottish Homes, a quango appointed by and accountable to, the Secretary of State for Scotland, has squandered many hundreds of thousands of pounds of the public purse in the scandal which surrounds Waverley Court in the Foxbar area of Paisley; regrets that Scottish Homes, driven only by political dogma, evacuated the 56-flat multi-storey building six years ago with the intention of selling it off to the private sector before taking the trouble to ascertain whether any mortgage-lender in the land was willing to finance the deal or lend on the property; notes with incredulity that Scottish Homes has allowed the building to remain empty and deteriorate ever since; believes it to be both sad and disgraceful that such negligence and incompetence on the part of the Scottish Homes Board appears to go unchallenged by Scottish Office Ministers, with whom the honourable Member for Paisley South has raised the matter time and time again in debates, parliamentary questions and correspondence; contrasts their complacency in this case with the outspoken position they have adopted when democratically-elected local councils have been guilty of far less; and calls upon the Secretary of State for Scotland to suspend the Chairman and Chief Executive of Scottish Homes, pending a full, thorough and public inquiry into this shameful fiasco.