§ Dr. Reidasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what will be the nature and estimated amount of funding given to local authorities in Scotland for the purpose of collecting the proposed community charge.
§ Mr. LangProvision for local authority current expenditure provision in 1988–89 includes £9 million for 233W the cost of introducing the community charge and £3 million for the cost of related changes to housing benefit arrangements. Provision for subsequent years will reflect the cost of collecting the community charge in the same way as for the cost of rate collection at present. Local authority expenditure is supported by rate support grant from central Government. In 1989–90 this will be replaced by revenue support grant. Both of these are grants in aid of the general revenues of authorities and are not hypothecated to individual items of expenditure.