§ Mr. Ian TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what changes he proposes to his Department's cash limits for 1993–94.
§ Mr. GummerI propose to make the following changes
1. The DoE/OES (other environmental services) non-voted cash limit will be increased by £2,676,000 from £45,000,000 to £47,676,000. This increase will be matched by a corresponding reduction in the DoE/NT (new towns) non-voted cash limit. The switch reflects local authority contributions to the Commission for the New towns under road cost sharing agreements. The increase in provision on the DoE/OES cash limit will be used to provide supplementary credit approvals to local authorities to cover their capital contributions to the Commission for the New Towns.2. The DoE/LACAP (local authority capital) non-voted cash limit will be increased by £99,577,000 from £2,457,808,000 to £2,557,385,000. The increase will be matched by a corresponding reduction in the DoE/NT cash limit. This results from the provision of additional supplementary credit approval resources to Basildon district council to facilitate the bulk transfer of rented housing stock between the Commission for the New Towns and the council. It also includes provision for Milton Keynes borough council and Wrekin district council to purchase residual rented housing stock from the commission.3. The DoE/NT (New Towns) non-voted cash limit will be reduced by £102,253,000 from -£96,325,000 to -£198,578,000. This is the result of reductions of £2,676,000 and £99,577,000 resulting from additional receipts from local authorities financed by the cash limit increases described above.4. The cash limit for class VII, vote 8 (revenue support grant, payments of non-domestic rates, Valuation Office services, etc., England) will be reduced by £35,000 from £28,808,113,000 to £28,808,078,000. This reduction is due to a saving on the council tax preparation grant resulting from lower than expected claims. This saving will be used to offset increased expenditure within the new control total on class VII, vote 12 (community charge grants, council tax transitional reduction grant, rate rebate grants, emergency financial assistance to local authorities, non-domestic rates outturn payments, etc., England), to meet claims for 859W emergency assistance to local authorities. The increase within vote 12 is being met by virement from voted expenditure not included in the new control total.All increases will be offset by reductions in other cash limited expenditure and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.