HC Deb 02 December 1981 vol 14 cc224-5
6. Mr. Newens

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment on what date he intends to announce the full details of the 1982–83 rate support grant and to communicate these to local authorities.

Mr. Heseltine

My right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is making a statement later today, which will make proposals for the main elements of the rate support grant settlement. I will also see today the leaders of the local authority associations. Further proposals on more detailed issues should be made before Christmas.

Mr. Newens

Can the right hon. Gentleman justify the staggering loss of grant that has been suffered by new town local authorities that have taken over their housing assets, as Harlow has? Is there any proposal to make any change in the formula to provide for these authorities? Does he realise the chaos that he is producing by not making clear what resources will be available to all local authorities even for next year?

Mr. Heseltine

I hope very much that if the hon. Gentleman will have a little patience these matters will be rapidly resolved.

Mr. Alexander

Is not the timing this year causing a great deal of uncertainty to local authorities, bearing in mind that at rate-fixing time most authorities will have 10 months or a full year when they will be unable to engage in forward planning? As rent payers must be given four weeks' notice of the intention to increase rents, is not the timing this year entirely unsatisfactory from the point of view of all local authorities?

Mr. Heseltine

My hon. Friend will understand that I have had an especially complex settlement to determine this year in view of the high levels of overspend in certain authorities. It seemed right to consider the matter carefully before reaching a decision. I hope that the announcements that will be made later today will enable authorities to have a clear picture of what the Government will expect of them. In that context the delays and dates are not that far out of accord with previous practice.

Mr. Kaufman

Is it not a fact that the Secretary of State has created enormous uncertainty among local authorities by his introduction and then his pigeonholing of the Local Government Finance Bill, by his cancellation of the statutory meeting on rate support grant and his intention to hold a non-statutory meeting, by the shambles that he has created as a result of his housing subsidy policy because he cannot relate it to the GREA policy and by the fact that he has not announced the housing investment programme? Surely it is intolerable that local authorities should be plunged into this turmoil because of the right hon. Gentleman's total incompetence.

Mr. Heseltine

The right hon. Gentleman is always seeking alibis for the high-spending authorities that the Labour Party temporarily represents. If he is able to cast his mind back to the days when he was a Minister in the Department of the Environment, he will recall that these decisions rest upon the Government's public expenditure decisions and not on the individual decisions of the Department. Given the high levels of overspending with which I am faced, the settlement has been especially complex this year. The only alternative would have been to rush forward to impose an unfair burden on the authorities that have been co-operating with me.

Mr. Steen

When my right hon. Friend communicates with Liverpool, will he remember that 350 typists have been on strike for six months, bringing the council's business programme to a halt? Does he agree that those typists should be dismissed and replaced by people who are prepared to work?

Mr. Heseltine

I understand my hon. Friend's concern. A wide number of dispassionate commentators would take the view that, for those who have secure jobs in local government, to prejudice the good working of that city, which contains one of the highest levels of unemployment in the country, is deeply regrettable. However, it would not be appropriate for me to give specific advice on how that should be remedied.

Mr. Joseph Dean

Is the Secretary of State saying that today's statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer will transcend and bypass the normal consultations that take place with local authorities regarding the rate support grant settlement? If that is so, is he not also saying that that is another fait accompli forced on local authorities? The right to determine how people who elected the authorities shall live in various facets of life is being completely removed from them.

Mr. Heseltine

The hon. Gentleman disappoints me by the way in which he is being swept away by the prejudices of his own rhetoric. Every Secretary of State has a balance to strike between informing the House and consulting the local authority leaders coincidentally. The proposals are today, as they have been in the past, that my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will make his statement and I shall talk to local authority leaders to begin the consultative process, attendant on the figures concerned.