HC Deb 11 November 1980 vol 992 c275

Lords amendment: No. 13, in page 11, line 35, leave out "each description of".

Mr. Fox

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

With this we may take Lords amendment No. 14.

Mr. Fox

We accept that, as long as the requirement for separate calculation of the rate of return remains, little would be lost in the way of clarity or informativeness of the annual financial statements if authorities were allowed to prepare merely a single overall balance sheet covering all their construction or maintenance activities. The single balance sheet would still have to show a true and fair view of the authority's position, and those who wanted to examine matters more closely would be enabled to do so by means of the separate statements of rates of return earned on the assets listed in that balance sheet. The amendment might save authorities a minimal amount of work, and I therefore recommend that the House accepts it.

Amendment No. 14 is consequential to amendment No. 12.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords amendment No. 14 agreed to.

Forward to