§ Mr. Michael Morrisasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authorities in England and Wales operate schemes of full or partial rating of unoccupied property; and what is his estimate of the revenue raised by the rating of unoccupied property for the latest available year.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettThe latest information we have is that 198 out of 402 rating authorities in England and Wales are
Percentage change on previous year 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 Forecast made in the White Paper published immediately prior to the beginning of the financial year … —0.0 —6.1 —6.1 +2.7 Outturn as estimated in latest White Paper—Cmnd. 7439 … —1.2 —4.8 —5.7 +2.1 In the two latest years for which figures are readily available on a fully comparable basis—1977–78 and 1978–79—the outturn was 2.5 per cent. and 1.2 per cent. respectively below the forecasts.
(a) Current and capital expenditure as defined for public expenditure survey purposes—see Cmnd. 7439.
§ Mr. Michael Morrisasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the total loan sanction for captial expenditure by local authorities in England and Wales for each year since 1974–75; and what proportion of the total in each year was allocated to the locally determined sector.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 17424W levying the empty property rate in 1978–79. The estimated revenue for the empty rate for 1978–79 is £54 million. No estimates are available of the revenue raised by the empty commercial property rating surcharge.