§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Wales what were the original estimates and the latest estimates of grants to each of the counties of Wales for 1974–75 for the expenditures which will be covered in 1975–76 by the new transport supplementary grants.
§ Mr. John MorrisThe information is as follows:
County Original estimate (£m.) Out-turn forecast (£m.) Gwynedd 0.70 0.70 Clwyd 1.51 1.05 Dyfed 0.65 0.60 Powys 0.42 0.54 West Glamorgan 1.66 1.63 Mid Glamorgan 0.57 0.46 South Glamorgan 1.00 0.80 Gwent 2.89 2.71 Actual expenditure by authorities is, of course, bound to depend upon the progress made with schemes, and other factors.
§ Sir Raymond Gowerasked the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what representations he has received from local authorities on his decisions on the level of local transport expenditure accepted for each county for 1975–76;
(2) why the threshold level of local transport expenditure for Welsh counties was lower than that for English counties.
§ Mr. John MorrisLower thresholds mean higher grants, and the Welsh formula therefore represents a measure of additional assistance for Welsh local authorities in those instances where the safeguard threshold was not an advantage. Local authority officials have, naturally enough, made it clear that they would have liked higher levels of expenditure to have been accepted, but I believe that320W the necessity for the limitation of public expenditure in the national interest has been recognised.
§ Sir Raymond Gowerasked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the estimated expenditure on local transport by each county in 1974–75; what is the level of expenditure accepted by him for each county in 1975–76; and what change this represents in each case over 1974–75.
§ Mr. John MorrisThe accepted levels of expenditure for the purposes of transport supplementary grant for the year 1975–76 at November 1973 prices are:
£ million Gwynedd 3.308 Clwyd 4.864 Dyfed 4.724 Powys 2.851 West Glamorgan 4.904 Mid Glamorgan 5.212 South Glamorgan 4.791 Gwent 5.946 36.600 1975–76 is the first year for which levels of accepted expenditure have been fixed and there are, therefore, no comparable figures for 1974–75. However, ignoring a transfer of resources from trunk roads to deal with a backlog of principal road schemes, the expenditure by Welsh local authorities in 1974–75 on those highways and transport services which are now accepted for transport supplementary grant purposes is expected to be £37.4 million at November 1973 prices. It is not possible to break the figure down between counties.