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Scottishministers provide a wide range of support to manufacturing companies, includingfinancial support, innovation grants, help with trade overseas, practical supportfor companies to improve productivity and efficiency and business and product planningservices delivered through our enterprise agencies and Scottish Development International.In addition, our Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service delivers specialist adviceto manufacturing companies in Scotland.

We will also seekto gain their support for tax powers and the setting of a more competitive rateof Corporation Tax in line with our manifesto commitment.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2593 on 21 August 2007. 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 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.

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 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.

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.

In exercising theirresponsibilities, local authorities allocate their resources on the basis of localneeds and local and national priorities. Replacing council tax with a local incometax will not change this.

We said before theelections that PPP could continue as one of several delivery options open to publicsector bodies. These are complex procurements involving high procurement costs forboth public and private sector participants. Some procurements have been in processfor many months, and we do not wish to incur even higher costs and possibly delaykey investments in infrastructure. West Dunbartonshire Council’s schools projectis making good progress and we will continue to discuss progress on the projectwith West Dunbartonshire Council.

The government willexercise financial discipline and deliver a programme of efficiency and reform toaddress the effects of the lower Budgetary growth that is anticipated in futurefunding settlements received from the UK Government.

The government’s intentionbehind the work to create a Scottish Housing Support Fund, which I announced duringthe housing debate in Parliament on 21 June 2007, is to attract private investmentto enable additional help to be provided for a wide range of people who struggleto afford a first home of their own. The targeting of assistance to first-time buyerswill be informed by the outcome of the current spending review and subsequent discussionswith private sector lenders and investors.