§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 29 July 1998,Official Report, column 237, if he will give equivalent figures for standard spending assessments for Milton Keynes Borough Council. [54955]
§ Ms ArmstrongThe information requested is in the tables. They show the effects of re-calculating the standard spending assessments for 1997–98 and 1998–99 using the method of calculating the area cost adjustment proposed by the 1996 Review of the Area Cost Adjustment but keeping the indicators of need used in the current SSA formulae.
Table 1: Standard Spending Assessments for 1997–98 Milton Keynes 1997–98 SSA £ million1 149.397 1997–98 SSA Using method proposed in Elliott Report2 (£ million) 156.155 Difference (£ million) 6,758 Difference (percentage) 4.5 Difference (£/head3) 34.28 1 The figures for 1997–98 are indicative SSAs to allow for the effects of local authority reorganisation on 1 April 1998 2 The figures are taken from Standard Spending Assessments Sub-Group: Report for 1998–99. They show the effect of using the method of calculating the ACA proposed by the 1996 Review of the Area Cost Adjustment using data available at August 1997 to determine the coefficients on the SSA formulae while keeping the same indicators in the formulae. 3 The population figures are as at 30 June 1996
Table 2: Standard Spending Assessments for 1998–99 Milton Keynes 1998–99 SSA £ million 157.475 1998–99 SSA Using method proposed in Elliott Report1 (£ million) 163.554 Difference (£ million) 6.079 Difference (percentage) 3.9 Difference (£/head2) 30.84 1 The figures show the effect of using the method of calculation proposed by the 1996 Review of the Area Coast Adjustment using data available at July 1998 to determine the coefficients on the SSA formulae while keeping the same indicators in the formulae 2 The population figures are as at 30 June 1996.
§ Dr. George TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) if he will list the amounts allocated per head of population for the cost effects of population density and sparsity in the other services sub-block of the Personal Social Services SSA for each local authority in England; [54197]
629W(2) if he will list for each SSA block and sub-block the proportion which is determined by regression analysis of previous expenditure; [54198]
(3) if he will list for each fire authority in England the amounts allocated per head of population for the cost effects of population density or sparsity; [54199]
(4) if he will estimate for each education authority the change in SSA if the Other Education Sub-block SSA were to include a sparsity effect equivalent in effect to the average of the factor in all other education sub-blocks; [54200]
(5) if he will estimate the changes in SSA for Norfolk if all elements of the Social Services SSA that can be expressed in unit cost terms were calculated using average unit cost SSA data for all authorities within (i) the Eastern Region (ii) all Shire counties (iii) England and Wales and (iv) London; [54231]
(6) if, for Norfolk County Council, he will estimate (a) the change in the SSA highways block if the SSA per kilometre of road were calculated at the average rate for England, (b) the change in SSA Fire Service block if calculated at the average rate per head of population for England and (c) the change in total SSA if calculated at the same average rate per head of population as that pertaining to (i) the Eastern Region, (ii) all shire counties, (iii) England and Wales and (iv) London; [54234]
(7) if he will estimate the changes in SSA for Norfolk if the SSA per pupil in (a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) post 16 and (d) under 5 SSA blocks were calculated using the average for local education authorities within (i) the Eastern Region, (ii) all shire counties, (iii) England and Wales and (iv) London. [54235]
§ Ms ArmstrongWhen the calculations requested have been completed, the information requested will be placed in the Library.
§ Dr. George TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will introduce a sparsity factor in the Other Education Sub-block of the SSA. [54201]
§ Ms ArmstrongWe expect to announce our proposals for Standard Spending Assessments for 1999–2000 around the beginning of December. No proposal of the kind described has been developed in this year's discussions with the Local Government Association about Standard Spending Assessments.
§ Dr. George TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will take account in future SSA calculations of the Highways SSA block for Norfolk of (i) the maintenance costs of minor roads which have not been constructed to a high standard and (ii) the number of summer visitors. [54230]
630W
1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 Trunk road maintenance 651 740 794 780 Making Better Use of trunk road network 139 139 193 220 Existing Road schemes 445 350 259 137 New schemes in Targeted Programme of Improvements 0 0 51 234 Private Finance 114 177 238 208 Total 1,349 1,406 1,535 1,579
§ Ms ArmstrongThe formula already takes account of the length of roads, including minor roads, which each Highways Authority is responsible for maintaining. It also takes account of traffic flow, making no distinction between traffic flow arising from residents and that arising from visitors.