§ 43. Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he makes of the demand for services in a particular local authority when reaching his decision on whether to rate-cap that authority.
§ Mr. ChopeUnder the Rates Act 1984, an authority may only be selected for rate limitation on the basis of certain common criteria determined by my right hon. Friend. For every year since the system was introduced, one of the criteria he has determined is the extent to which an authority's total expenditure is likely to exceed its grant-related expenditure, which itself is an objective assessment of what the authority would need to spend to provide a standard level of services.