THE sooner a devolved Scottish parliament with responsibility for

housing investment and planning is set up the better for Scotland's

housing needs, STUC general secretary Campbell Christie told a

conference in Aviemore yesterday.

In addition, the workings of Scottish Homes should be overhauled and

local councils given greater power to intervene in the local housing

market and determine local housing needs, he said.

Too much control over policy and finance rested with the Government,

Mr Christie told the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of

Housing in Scotland. Housing was a top priority for many local councils

and for many local people but it had rarely been a priority for central

government.

Scotland badly needed to create a housing market where people could

move freely between different tenures of housing according to their

individual needs rather than their economic status.

This was much more likely to come about if a Scottish parliament was

created and a new partnership was struck with local authorities and

developing housing associations, he suggested.

That parliament would be responsible for housing legislation and would

have a big say in industrial and economic policy, said Mr Christie.

The shortage of affordable housing had put a brake on the economic

development of certain areas of Scotland. If we were to bring back

regional policy and some control over the economy, we should bring back

some regional planning and control over our housing requirements, he

said.

To achieve this the housing development agency Scottish Homes would

have to be overhauled.

While it was important to build on the agency's positive work such as

its pioneering partnerships with the private sector, this should be

accompanied by much greater ''hands on'' involvement in the Scottish

housing market, he said.

Work also needed to begin in tackling the chronic shortages of good

quality housing for rent, especially for young people. This should be

done principally, though not exclusively, through local authorities

which should mainly determine the type and location of housing in their

areas.

Meanwhile, Scottish Housing Minister, Lord James Douglas-Hamilton,

said yesterday that homelessness remained a key priority for the

Government in allocating local authority resources.