§ Mr. McTaggartasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish in the Official Report the amounts of relevant expenditure as defined for rate support grant purposes for Scottish local authorites in each year since 1978.
§ Mr. AncramThe provision for local authority relevant expenditure in rate support grant settlements is as follows:
local authority pay and price increases for each year up to 1981–82, are set out in the table. In certain cases when pay awards were higher than assumed, the original cash limits were adjusted. The adjusted inflation allowances are shown in column (4) of the table. Actual inflation is given in column (5). As from 1982–83 rate support grant has been determined on a cash basis and, accordingly, RSG settlements no longer distinguish between existing and future levels of pay and prices.
537W
Assumptions underlying cash limits on rate support grant Wage increases Other cost increases (year-on-year) Overall inflation allowance in RSG settlement Revised overall inflation allowance (after cash limit adjustments) Actual inflation (1) percentage
(2) percentage
(3) percentage
(4) percentage
(5) percentage
1979–80 50 8.5 6.5 12.6 15.9 1980–81 — — 1.80 180 22.9 1981–82 6.0 11.0 7.3 7.5 10.8 Notes:
- (a) The figures in columns (3) and (4) relate to inflation assumptions covering the period from November preceding each grant year to estimated outturn prices for the year. The figures in column (5) show actual local authority cost increases over the same period.
- (b) For 1980–81, the cash limit was determined on the assumption that overall costs in 1980–81 would be 13 per cent. higher than the average for 1979–80. Allowance was also made for the additional cost of comparability awards, bring the overall inflation allowance to 18 per cent.
- (c) Figures in column (4) reflect the revised cash limit provisions for inflation but are before general abatements of grant.