§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, pursuant to the issue of GNLA-22, he will make a statement on the amount of money so far remitted to him by local authorities in respect of surpluses on their community land accounts; whether this has been redistributed to other local authorities; and, if so, whether he will list for each authority (a) the surplus remitted and (b) the amount paid to it under the redistribution formula.
§ Mr. Giles ShawA final redistribution of surpluses was completed in England by my right hon. Friend on 31 March last. After taking account of the value of land in hand, 89 accounts showed surpluses totalling £21.6 million and 294 accounts showed deficits totalling £16.8 million. The local authorities in surplus remitted £10.9 million, which was distributed to authorities in deficit in strict proportion to their deficits. The effect was to reduce all deficits by about 65 per cent.
The details for each local authority will be laid before Parliament by the Comptroller and Auditor General when he has audited the Secretary of State's account.
§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will give final details for (a) 1978–79 and (b) succeeding years, where appropriate, of the total level of (i) expenditure, (ii) income, (iii) deficit or (iv) surplus for English local authorities in their community land accounts.
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§ Mr. Giles ShawThe information is as follows:
£ million 1978–79 Total expenditure 36.0 Total income 12.7 Deficit 23.3 1979–80 Total expenditure 28.7 Total income 29.6 Surplus 0.9