HL Deb 16 December 1982 vol 437 cc835-41WA
Earl Fortescue

asked her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will announce the allocations of transport supplementary grant for 1983–84 for county councils in England and for the Greater London Council; and whether they will make a statement.

Lord Bellwin

County councils have today been informed of their allocations of transport supplementary grant for 1983–84, which my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport intends to prescribe in the Rate Support Grant Report which he and my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has laid before Parliament. We are announcing full details of the settlement now so that counties can take our decisions into account in planning their transport budgets for the year starting 1st April next. The figures are set out in Table 1.

For the 1983–84 settlement my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport has decided to accept a total of £1,836.193 million, which represents an increase of 12½ per cent. on the equivalent figure for 1982–83. As in previous years, grant will be paid at a rate of approximately 70 per cent. on that part of each county council's accepted expenditure which lies above a threshold, which is determined on a per capita basis. For 1983–84, the threshold will be £25.59 per head. The total of grant payable will be £450.0 million, slightly less than in 1982–83. This reflects the cut in national insurance surcharge, and also the overall Government view that the proportion of local authority expenditure contributed by the taxpayer should be reduced.

As in previous years, there will be a second "Safety net" threshold, so that all counties will get grant on at least 3 per cent. of their accepted expenditure.

The size of the transport expenditure programme which my right honourable friend is accepting for 1983–84 indicates the importance which the Government attach to transport. My right honourable friend particularly wants to encourage capital investment, the provision for which is raised by over £100 million compared with 1982–83. This will enable county councils to start some 50 new capital projects, including 35 by-passes and urban relief roads designed to take heavy lorry traffic away from residential areas. Investment of this kind by county councils on their own roads valuably complements the Government's own programme of by-passes on trunk roads. Further investment will also be made in public passenger transport schemes—we are continuing to support the programmes of replacements and renewals on London Transport, and it is expected that the Tyne and Wear Metro system will be completed in 1983–84 with the resources now being provided.

The largest single element within the settlement is again expenditure on road maintenance. The total accepted for this exceeds £830 million, an increase of some 5 per cent. on the current year, and more than 20 per cent. over the past two years. As the first stage in the implementation of lorry action areas, as recommended by the Armitage Report, my right honourable friend invited county councils to put forward special schemes of road maintenance designed to mitigate the effects of heavy lorry traffic, in places where by-passes cannot be constructed. Allocations for 58 such schemes are included in the settlement.

The third major element in the settlement, public passenger transport subsidies, has become controversial in recent years because of the excessively high spending proposed by the GLC and some of the metropolitan counties. The Government have always made it clear that they are not prepared to support unrealistically low fares policies which impose a severe burden upon ratepayers. Those paying subsidy for public transport are entitled to know how their money is being spent and that they are getting good value for it. The special legislation that is being introduced to clarify the powers of the GLC and metropolitan counties to pay subsidy aims to put the whole system on a more stable basis. But the Government support reasonable levels of public transport subsidy, and over £370 million of expenditure has been accepted for grant in the 1983–84 Settlement.

The overall effect of these decisions will be to keep up the momentum of capital investment in new roads, especially by-passes, and in public transport projects; to enable county councils to maintain their road networks; and to provide substantial levels of subsidy to public passenger transport in all areas. The grant distributed through this settlement, together with the further support for transport spending provided by the Government through RSG. will help county councils to carry out balanced programmes of transport expenditure in 1983–84 without making heavy calls on local ratepayers.

My right honourable friend is also announcing today the capital control allocations for transport, in accordance with Section 72 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980. These cover all capital expenditure accepted for TSG, together with expenditure on certain other items not eligible for this form of grant. Details of these allocations are set out in Table 2.

TABLE 1
THE DISTRIBUTION OF TRANSPORT SUPPLEMENTARY GRANTS FOR 1983–84
£ million
EXPENDITURE ACCEPTED FOR TSG
County Revenue Bus etc. Support Rail Maintenance Other Current Capital Total 1983–84 Cash Grant
GLC 113.750 0.000 114.409 6.159 227.500 461.818 200.722
GMC 24.000 18.500 38.887 .414 18.675 100.476 23.426
Merseyside 22.050 14.500 26.600 .505 19.111 82.766 30.688
South Yorkshire 12.575 3.500 23.070 .171 8.571 47.887 9.993
Tyne/Wear 13.000 1.500 19.800 .060 13.600 47.960 12.825
West Midlands 19.425 6.000 42.818 .326 26.322 94.891 18.585
West Yorkshire 25.063 9.000 35.916 .907 17.016 87.902 24.611
Total Mets 116.113 53.000 187.091 2.383 103.295 461.882 120.128
Avon 3.564 0.000 15.513 .220 3.736 23.033 .484
Bedford 1.000 0.000 8.020 .080 5.805 14.905 1.300
Berkshire 1.572 0.000 10.400 0.000 9.494 21.466 2.635
Buckinghamshire 1.611 0.000 9.730 .061 6.978 18.380 2.626
Cambridgeshire .834 0.000 9.822 .024 5.910 16.590 1.039
Cheshire 5.250 0.000 17.884 .202 4.935 28.271 3.140
Cleveland 3.410 0.000 10.150 .075 8.500 22.135 5.302
Cornwall 1.427 .023 11.805 .024 5.806 19.085 5.750
Cumbria 2.483 .012 13.700 .013 3.760 19.968 5.402
Derbyshire 5.461 .051 17.484 .066 5.114 28.176 3.404
Devon 1.677 0.000 21.670 .183 9.356 32.886 5.777
Dorset 1.300 0.000 11.532 .128 10.900 23.860 6.003
Durham 2.047 .003 12.400 .085 6.326 20.861 3.722
East Sussex 3.097 0.000 10.122 .036 4.810 18.065 .678
Essex 3.423 .003 24.238 .100 13.003 40.767 2.003
Gloucestershire .567 0.000 8.960 .100 5.512 15.139 1.561
Hampshire 3.616 0.000 20.900 .112 13.804 38.432 .807
Herefordshire/Worcestershire 1.213 .216 11.168 .083 7.492 20.172 2.755
Hertfordshire 6.694 .006 14.406 .814 9.430 31.350 4.678
Humberside 2.794 .021 17.153 .060 11.234 31.262 6.573
Isle of Wight .412 0.000 3.050 .054 2.337 5.853 1.973
Kent 3.041 0.000 24.622 .294 13.884 41.841 2.728
Lancashire 8.293 0.000 28.780 .060 12.267 49.400 9.816
Leicestershire 2.040 0.000 14.645 .455 11.846 28.986 4.940
Lincolnshire .867 .016 15.440 .044 4.997 21.364 5.115
Norfolk 1.009 0.000 12.550 .019 6.363 19.941 1.425
Northamptonshire 1.370 0.000 9.330 .032 6.499 17.231 2.542
Northumberland .689 0.000 8.748 .121 3.704 13.262 3.903
North Yorkshire 1.600 0.000 19.500 .083 7.537 28.720 8.062
Nottinghamshire 2.484 0.000 15.800 .053 10.822 29.159 2.641
Oxfordshire .275 0.000 8.366 .043 3.736 12.420 .261
Shropshire .948 0.000 8.065 .087 3.844 12.944 2.233
Somerset .497 0.000 10.141 .024 5.974 16.636 3.949
Staffordshire 4.191 0.000 15.273 .040 8.701 28.205 1.535
Suffolk .300 .011 10.200 .025 7.068 17.604 1.482
Surrey 5.149 0.000 17.425 .212 8.995 31.781 4.052
Warwickshire .615 0.000 9.200 .101 5.088 15.004 1.980
West Sussex 1.988 0.000 12.716 .028 7.292 22.024 3.475
Wiltshire .882 0.000 8.825 .262 5.346 15.315 1.399
Total shires 89.690 .362 529.733 4.503 288.205 912.493 129.150
England 319.553 53.362 831.233 13.045 619.000 1,836.193 450.000
CAPITAL ALLOCATIONS: TRANSPORT 1983–84
Table 2
County Council (£m cash) Total
GLC 213.290
GMC 27.856
Merseyside 22.919
Tyne & Wear 26.989
S. Yorkshire 21.970
W. Midlands 39.382
W. Yorkshire 24.685
Total Mets (Exc GLC) 163.801
Avon 3.736
Bedfordshire 5.805
Berkshire 9.494
Buckinghamshire 6.978
Cambridgeshire 5.910
Cheshire 4.975
Cleveland 8.525
Cornwall 5.806
Cumbria 5.220
Derbyshire 5.414
Devonshire 9.441
Dorset 10.900
Durham 6.326
E. Sussex 4.810
Essex 13.253
Gloucestershire 5.512
Hampshire 13.804
H. & Worcester 7.492
Hertfordshire 9.430
Humberside 11.234
Isle of Wight 2.337
Kent 14.134
Lancashire 12.267
Leicestershire 11.846
Lincoln 4.997
Norfolk 6.363
Northamptonshire 6.549
Northumberland 3.704
N. Yorkshire 7.537
Nottinghamshire 10.867
Oxfordshire 3.736
Shropshire 3.844
Somerset 5.974
Staffordshire 8.701
Suffolk 7.068
Surrey 8.995
Warwickshire 5.088
W. Sussex 7.292
Wiltshire 5.346
Total Shires 290.710
District Council (£m cash) Total
Allerdale 0.006
Ashfield 0.100
Barnsley 0.374
Barrow in Furness 0.318
Blackburn 0.453
Blackpool 0.489
Blyth Valley 0.044
Bolton 0.016
Boston 0.736
Bournemouth 0.065
Bradford 0.030
Brighton 0.201
Bristol 3.444
Burnley & Pendle 0.148
Bury 0.486
Canterbury 0.080
Carrick 0.061
Chester 0.216
Chesterfield 0.563
Copeland 0.020
Colchester 0.087
Crewe & Nantwich 0.050
Darlington 0.318
Derby 0.910
Derwentside 0.080
Doncaster 0.224
Durham 0.050
East Staffordshire 0.027
Ellesmere Port & Nelson 0.080
Exeter 0.098
Fenland 0.109
Gateshead 0.040
Gillingham 0.028
Glanford 0.300
Great Grimsby 0.371
Halton 0.040
Hartlepool 0.571
Hull 0.510
Hyndburn 0.239
Kirklees 0.361
Lancaster 0.138
Leeds 0.403
Leicester 1.118
Maidstone 0.254
Manchester 0.112
Medina 0.024
Middlesbrough 0.806
Northampton 0.509
Nottingham 0.756
Penwith 0.252
Plymouth 0.395
Portsmouth 4.061
Preston 0.424
Reading 0.816
Richmond 0.142
Rochdale 0.116
Rotherham 0.812
Rossendale 0.265
Scunthorpe 1.040
Sefton 0.010
Southampton 0.318
South Hams 0.175
Southend-on-Sea 0.366
South Lakeland 0.143
South Tyneside 0.018
Stockport 0.046
Stockton 0.025
Sunderland 3.299
Tameside 0.005
Teignbridge 0.110
Thamesdown 0.321
Thanet 0.340
Trafford 0.409
Torbay 0.016
Torridge 0.016
Tynedale 0.050
Vale Royal 0.190
Wansbeck 0.020
Warrington 0.417
West Somerset 0.030
Weymouth & Portland 0.152
Wigan 0.069
Total Districts 31.331
London Boroughs (£m cash) Total
Barking 0.221
Barnet 0.392
Bexley 2.307
Brent 0.542
Bromley 1.499
Camden 0.318
City of London 2.789
Croydon 0.597
Ealing 2.078
Enfield 0.243
Greenwich 0.000
Hackney 0.472
Hammersmith 3.073
Haringey 0.351
Harrow 2.779
Havering 0.500
Hillingdon 4.870
Hounslow 0.412
Islington 0.404
Kensington and Chelsea 0.651
Kingston 1.933
Lambeth 0.739
Lewisham 0.341
Merton 2.329
Newham 1.580
Redbridge 1.241
Richmond 0.192
Southwark 3.1 14
Sutton 0.864
Tower Hamlets 1.105
Waltham Forest 0.837
Wandsworth 0.427
Westminster 2.800
Total London Boroughs 42.000
Total Counties (inc. GLC) 667.801
Total Districts 31.331
Total London Boroughs 42.000
Total England 741.132