§ 24. Mr. Nelsonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give an estimate of the cost to public expenditure of the additional services to be introduced by local government to which he has recently referred.
§ Mr. OakesI do not know what services the hon. Member has in mind, but I do not expect local authorities to undertake any new duties under existing legislation except by reallocation of existing resources.
§ Mr. NelsonHow does the Minister reconcile successive Government circulars calling on local authorities to spend more with the need for overall economy? How, for example, does he reconcile the circular on housing, which calls on local authorities to provide conversions and new mobile and extendable homes, with the Government's intention to tighten advances for improvement grants?
§ Mr. OakesThose circulars ask for restraint. Housing is dealt with separately, as I said in reply to a previous Question. In the December circular we made it clear to local authorities that, as my right hon. Friend has just told the House, the Government would restrain requests to local authorities and ask them to restrain their expenditure, in contradistinction to what happened under the previous Conservative Government.