§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his Department's latest estimate of the aggregate underspending by local authorities in England and Wales on their current budgets; and if he will publish figures showing the estimated underspending by each authority.
§ Mr. Shore:It is now estimated that the volume of current expenditure by local authorities in England and Wales in 1977…78 will be about £90 million—at November 1976 prices—less than that forecast in the Government's Public Expenditure Plans (Cmnd. 6721). Because there is no forecast of expenditure by individual authorities it is not possible to say by how much any individual authority has underspent.