HC Deb 19 March 1981 vol 1 cc171-2W
Mr. Durant

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he now has about the likely housing investment expenditure in 1980–81 of local authorities in England; and when he expects to announce adjusted allocations for 1981–82.

Mr. Stanley

I have today placed in the Library a table showing each authority's estimate of the housing capital expenditure in 1980–81 to which it declared itself to be committed in December 1980. These figures are compared with each authority's adjusted permitted level of expenditure for 1980–81. As a result of revisions to certain authorities' figures they now indicate that the national cash limit may be exceeded by £4.3 million rather than the figure of £7 million that my right hon. Friend gave the House on 15 December 1980.—[Vol. 966 c. 38.] To this should be added further expenditure arising in his financial year from my right hon. Friend's decision to allow underspending authorities to approve discretionary grants and loans for home improvement.

As my right hon. Friend told the House on 15 December 1980, adjustments to the housing investment programme allocations provisionally announced on that day are necessary both to reflect overspending or underspending by individual authorities, and to offset a net total of £56.1 million—revised from the original figure of £55 million in the light of subsequent figures from authorities—which was available to authorities in 1980–81 under the year-to-year tolerance limits but which would lead to the cash limit of £2,186 million for that year being exceeded by 2.503 per cent.

My right hon. Friend has decided to make these adjustments by deducting 2.503 per cent. from each authority's permitted spend figure for 1980–81—that is, from its basic allocation as adjusted by tolerance—and by using this abated figure to estimate the extent of an authority's under or overspending in 1980–81 before specifying its formal allocation for 1981–82.

Each local authority is being informed of—

  1. (a) its revised permitted spend' for 1980–81;
  2. (b) the extent to which the authority's latest estimate of outturn for 1980–81 falls within or exceeds this revised permitted spend; and
  3. (c) the consequential adjustment to the authority's allocation for 1981–82.

The table referred to above contains details of the calculations for each authority. I have also placed copies of the formal allocation letter in the Library.