§ Dr. PETERSasked the Minister of Health the amount of the grant under the Local Government Act, 1929, per head of the poplation in rural and urban areas, respectively, after taking into consideration the fact that the grant in respect of highway maintenance in rural areas is payable to the county council and in urban areas it is payable to the urban authority, except in so far as it affects main roads?
§ Mr. GREENWOODBefore a fair comparison could be made of the kind the hon. Member has in mind, it would be necessary to make a full inquiry for each administrative county into the difference of rate incidence between rural and urban areas not only with respect to the expenditure on highway maintenance to which the hon. Member refers but also with respect to expenditure on other services. Such an inquiry could profitably be made only as part of a general investigation referred to in the reply to another question by the hon. Member.
§ Dr. PETERSasked the Minister of Health whether he will take steps to ascertain the way in which the formula is working, under the Local Government Act, 1929, as between rural and urban areas; whether he is aware that certain authorities are complaining that the grants in urban areas are much larger per head of the population than in rural areas and whether he will consider an alteration in the formula so that rural areas receive as much per head of the population as urban areas?
§ Mr. GREENWOODIt will not be possible to draw any general conclusions as regards the working of the financial arrangements of the Local Government Act, 1929, for some considerable time. As the hon. Member is no doubt aware, provision is made in Section 110 of the Act for investigation to be made before the end of the second grant period into the working of the provisions of the Act governing the distribution of grant and for a report of the result of the investigation to be laid before Parliament.