HC Deb 07 March 1990 vol 168 cc721-4W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the community charge increase over rates for the village of Eriswell; what contribution the United States air force personnel will be required to contribute; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Chope

I cannot say what the difference between the community charge and the rates paid by the residents of the village of Eriswell will be. It depends on the level of the community charge, which Forest Heath district council has yet to set, and on the present rateable value of each home. My Department does not have information on individual rateable values. United States air force personnel are exempt from the community charge and will make no contribution. Local authorities are compensated for the loss of income arising from these and any other exemptions by the operation of the revenue support grant system. They receive enough grant to enable them to spend at the level of the standard spending assessment and set a charge of .278, before transitional arrangements, on the assumption that it is collected only from those who are subject to the charge.

Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) why an owner of an hotel is eligible for phased transitional relief on the original building but not on any extensions carried out;

(2) what arrangements his Department is making to make phased transitional relief on commercial rating for the hotel and guesthouse trade available to new owners after 1 April.

Mr. Chope

Transitional relief is intended to phase in the new business rate to protect existing ratepayers from large overnight increases in their rate bills. A person who extends his property, or takes on a different property, on or after 1 April 1990, will know what his liability will be before doing so. Transitional relief could be made available in these circumstances only by reducing the limits on rate reductions at the expense of many businesses in northern England, including those in south Yorkshire, where average rate bills would fall by 26.7 per cent. in 1990–91 without transition.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment for what reason the scaling factor for children's personal social services in table C of the calculations for Humberside's standard spending assessment is specified to 14 decimal places; what the figure represents; and what the effect of this scaling factor is on the standard spending assessment for Grimsby.

Mr. Chope

The scaling factor for children's personal social services ensures that the sum of the SSA elements for individual authorities is equal to the total of SSA available for children's social services for England of .1,275.1 million in 1990–91.

It is specified to 14 decimal places to ensure that this exact total is achieved. It has no effect on the standard spending assessment for Grimsby since Grimsby, as a non-metropolitan district, is not responsible for social services.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how, with reference to paragraph 3.29 of his Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England), poll tax payers and council officials may check the validity of the figure of .1.37.

Mr. Chope

The figure referred to in paragraph 3.29 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report was arrived at after full consultation with local authority representatives, and was approved by the House on 18 January. Local authorities are able to check that this figure has been correctly applied to the circumstances of their particular local authority.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how, with reference to paragraph 3.32 of his Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England), poll tax payers and council officials may check the validity of the figure of(a) .1,928.93 and (b) .13.05.

Mr. Chope

The figures referred to in paragraph 3.32 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) were arrived at after full consultation with local authority representatives, and were approved by this House on 18 January. Local authority officials are able to check that the figures have been properly applied to the circumstances of their particular local authority.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what allowance was made in the standard spending assessment of each English local authority for the use of reserves; and what information he has on the actual figure announced by each authority.

Mr. Chope

The standard spending assessment for an authority is intended to represent the amount of revenue expenditure which it would be appropriate for the authority to incur to provide a standard level of service consistent with the view of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment of the amount of revenue expenditure which it would be appropriate for all local authorities to incur. We considered that it was not appropriate to make any allowance in SSAs for reserves. I have no firm information on the use of reserves announced by each authority.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate was made of the number of second homes in each local authority area in fixing the standard spending assessment for that area; and what is the ratio of each estimate to the total population or the poll tax register.

Mr. Chope

The number of second homes is not an indicator used in calculating standard spending assessments. I do not have any estimate of the number of second homes in each local authority area.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment with reference to paragraph 3.29 of his Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England), what effect the choice of the figure of(a) .7.11 and (b) .1.37 has on the standard spending assessment arrived at for Humberside.

Mr. Chope

The figure of .7.11 in paragraph 3.29 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) when applied to the resident population of Humberside contributes .9 per relevant adult to Humberside's SSA. The figure of .1.37 when applied to the ward-weighted density for Humberside accounts for .5 per relevant adult of the SSA for Humberside.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment with reference to paragraph 3.32 of his Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England), what effect the choice of the figure of(a) .1,928.93 and (b) .13.05 has on the standard spending assessment arrived at for Humberside.

Mr. Chope

The figures referred to in paragraph 3.32 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) contribute .28 and .2 per relevant adult, respectively, to the SSA for Humberside.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his reply of 19 February,Official Report, column 474, concerning the amount of rates and poll tax in inner and outer London, whether he will publish in the Official Report the information placed in the Library on 11 January.

Mr. Chope

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him of 23 February,Official Report, Vol. 167, column 929.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his written reply to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby of 14 February,Official Report, column 222, concerning the amount of poll tax payable in 1990–91 per adult for each region etc., whether in each case the proposed reduction or increase in the local tax and ratepayer's contribution to local expenditure assumes an increase or decrease in the per adult contribution made by central Government; and whether he will publish in the Official Report the per adult figures for the central Government contribution in each case together with figures showing that contribution as a percentage of the local tax and ratepayer's contribution.

Mr. Chope

The Government have not proposed specific increases in local contributions to expenditure in 1990–91. The Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) sets out the basis of distribution of revenue support grant for 1990–91. The Revenue Support Grant Transition Report (England) sets out the adjustments to that basis of distribution and the Special Grant Report specifies two special grants for 1990–91. The distribution of business rates will be in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1988. I have today placed in the Library a table which shows the aggregate of these amounts (known as "external support") for each area, as amounts per adult and as percentages of the average assumed personal community charge or 1989–90 rate bill per adult.

Sir John Stanley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the latest estimated public expenditure cost to central Government in 1990–91 of the community charge transitional relief scheme for individuals.

Mr. David Hunt

[holding answer 2 March 1990]: My latest estimate is that about .350 million of transitional relief will be distributed in 1990–91 and that this will benefit about 7.5 million charge payers. This estimate is consistent with the figures on the distributional effect of the community charge placed in the Library on 15 February.

The figures for later years are .260 million in 1991–92 and .200 million in 1992–93. The total amount of relief over the three years is therefore about .810 million.

Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether, pursuant to the Prime Minister's answer on 28 February,Official Report, column 208, that he is responsible for monitoring all extra costs imposed on local authorities by (a) Act of Parliament, (b) statutory instruments and (c) departmental circulars, he will list by Department the notifications under each of these headings, by quantum, for each of the next three years, of the new costs to be borne by local authorities since the rate support grant quantum was agreed with the Treasury in July 1989.

Mr. David Hunt

It is not yet possible to provide a comprehensive list of all the extra costs that will fall to local authorities in the next three years as many of the new pressures and new savings on local authority expenditure for 1991–92 and future years have not yet been quantified.

We will shortly be entering into discussions with the local authority associations before deciding what would be appropriate for local authorities to spend in 1991–92. These discussions will provide the opportunity to identify new burdens on local authorities across the whole range of local authority functions.