§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he 612W will publish rate increases so far announced by local authorities for the year 1978–79; and what action he will take to assist local authorities which are forced to increase their rates by more than 10 per cent. in order to meet statutory requirements.
§ Mr. ShoreNo. Comprehensive details will be published in due course in a variety of publications, including the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's "Financial, General and Rating Statistics". The rate support grant settlement should enable the average of domestic rate increases to be restricted to single figures, but variation above and below this average will inevitably occur. I have already introduced a safety net to protect authorities from excessive losses of grant arising from the RSG distribution arrangements for 1978–79. I do not consider that any further action is required.