HC Deb 20 June 1973 vol 858 cc663-4
12. Mr. John

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what environmental projects will be deferred or cancelled as a result of the cuts in public expenditure announced on 21st May 1973.

Mr. Rippon

I have nothing to add to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Oswestry (Mr. Biffen) on 25th May.—[Vol. 857, c. 184–6.]

Mr. John

Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman not give an undertaking that since all the information we are now receiving indicates that very much money will have to be spent in future in giving Britain a satisfactory environment he will press his Cabinet colleagues as strongly as possible that, wherever public expenditure is available, it should be provided and not cut from environmental projects?

Mr. Rippon

Excluding housing, for which we have made additional provisions, we still expect a growth in local government expenditure in 1974–75 of about 2½per cent.

Mr. Scott-Hopkins

Is it possible that the building of reservoirs in rural areas can be postponed?

Mr. Rippon

Every project has to be judged on its merits.

Mr. Dormand

How will the cuts affect the east-west roads proposed in the Northern Region? The north-south communications are now reasonably satisfactory, but without the two east-west road links the scheme remains half-baked.

Mr. Rippon

For various reasons I have a good deal of sympathy with that general proposition, but it is too early to say which roads will be affected. Naturally, discussions are going on as to which projects might be deferred. The Question refers to projects being cancelled, but we have much more in mind the deferment of projects while the construction industry is under heavy pressure. It is a question of resources as well as money.

Mr. Crosland

Did I understand the right hon. and learned Gentleman to say that next year expenditure on the environment, less housing, would rise by only 2½ per cent.? If I did so understand him, may I ask whether he is aware that this is a smaller rise than the Government are expecting in the gross national product, and that he is telling us, therefore, that the entire block of environmental expenditure is to decline next year as a proportion of the gross national product?

Mr. Rippon

I referred to local government expenditure as a whole. What the right hon. Gentleman calls "environmental" may vary from project to project. People have different conceptions of what is "environment". On the expenditure as a whole, the original idea was to have a growth of about 4 per cent. but now, excluding housing, it will be 2½ per cent. In housing, however, we envisage a substantial increase. I remember the Opposition, in the local elections, emphasising that we ought to put houses before roads.