My overall impression is that the Bill is of almost stunning irrelevance when seen in the context of the Scottish Housing Crisis.

Not one extra penny will be spent on the disastrous Crisis in Scottish Housing.

Even if there is a dispute about the COSLA figures - and there is such a dispute, as both the Minister and the hon. Member for Cathcart have said - there cannot he any dispute about the scale and the gravity of the Scottish Housing Crisis, nor will the proposed capital allocation do anything other than slowly mitigate it.

The Bill will mean higher rents, fewer rights and less security of tenure; that appears to be the basis of the Government's approach in trying to tackle the Scottish Housing Crisis.

It seems scarcely credible in the middle of a Scottish Housing Crisis, with homelessness and waiting lists increasing, with the cessation of public authority house building, and with dampness and other massive problems facing us, that these orders are before us to cheesepare sums of money which could otherwise be spent on helping to solve the problems.

The legislation provides the opportunity to lay a duty on the Secretary of State for Scotland to deal with the Scottish Housing Crisis, and he cannot begin to do that without accurate information.

Instead of deeming, making up and cutting by stealth, why do the Government not acknowledge the massive need for investment to halt the Crisis in Scottish Housing?

Yet again the Government refuse to recognise that there is a Crisis in Scottish Housing.

All of that at a time of Crisis in Scottish Housing.

Over the past few years, the realisation has dawned that the Crisis in Scottish Housing is not confined to urban areas - it extends to rural areas, too.

The Scottish National party offers an alternative, which we think is capable of dealing with the scale of the Scottish Housing Crisis.

We shall pursue that twin-track approach to turn around the desperate Crisis in Scottish Housing, and provide people with the warm, decent homes that are an essential part of a civilised society.