§ Mr. Andersonasked the Secretary of State for Wales what recent representations he has received from Welsh local authorities concerning the withholding of grant on the ground of excessive expenditure; what response he has made; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsI have received representations about grant withholding from the Welsh Counties 61W Committee, the Council for the Principality and six individual authorities. I am considering my response to these in the light of authorities' budgeted total expenditure for the current year, which in aggregate is approximately £23 million in excess of the sum of the individual authority total expenditure targets specified in appendix 12 of the "Welsh Rate Support Grant Report 1983–84". Every authority was notified of its expenditure target last December and knows that if its total expenditure exceeds this it is liable to grant withholding up to the limits set out in the report.