§ Mr. Gregoryasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what account is taken of tourist related expenditure incurred by local authorities when calculating the rate support grant; how the calculation is made; what 710W provision was made in 1980-81, 1981-82 and 1982-83; what is his forecast for 1983-84; and what account has been taken in each year as regards such expenditure by local authorities as regards York.
§ Mr. WaldegraveMuch tourist related expenditure by local authorities is either discretionary or not separately identifiable. In 1983-84 part of the grant related expenditure assessment for environmental (and port) health was distributed on the basis of the number of visitor nights for each authority. In 1981-82 and 1982-83, this indicator was also included in the grant related expenditure assessment for parks. But in 1983-84 this component was amalgamated with that for sports provision, and visitor nights was not found to be a statistically significant indicator of the need to spend on the combined service. In 1980-81 the previous rate support grant system operated, and there was no separate provision for tourist related expenditure. In the case of York City Council's grant related expenditure the visitor nights indicator accounted for about £81,000 in 1981-82; £93,000 in 1982-83; and £55,000 in 1983-84.