§ Mr. DicksTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the levels of revenue reserves held by local authorities. [33468]
§ Mr. CurryMy Department has recently conducted a survey of the general fund revenue reserves held by local authorities during 1994–95. The results show that authorities held about £5.7 billion in revenue reserves at 1 April 1994, of which about £2.3 billion was unallocated, the remainder being earmarked for specific purposes or held on behalf of schools under local management of schools schemes.
Authorities expect their reserves to decrease by 1 April 1995 to about £4.8 billion, of which £0.6 billion would be held on behalf of schools, £2.3 billion in other earmarked reserves, and £1.9 billion in working balances and other unallocated reserves. This compares with their budgeted revenue expenditure of £45.6 billion for 1995–96.
Assuming that authorities appropriate from reserves the amounts which they have taken into account in their 1995–96 budgets, their reserves would total £3.9 billion on 31 March 1996, of which we estimate that between £1.25 billion and £1.5 billion would be unallocated.
I have today placed in the Library of the House a copy of the available figures for the reserves which each authority expects to hold at 1 April 1995.