§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much Government funding is available to match local authority funding in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall for flood defences; how much has been available in each of the last three years; and how much has been taken up by each local authority in Devon. [115772]
§ Mr. MorleyGovernment funding is provided by way of Revenue Support Grant and MAFF grants on capital works.
The flood defence Standing Spending Assessments (for Revenue Support Grant) reflect a range of flood defence 639W costs falling on different classes of local authority, ie levies paid to the Environment Agency, special levies to internal drainage boards and local authorities own expenditure as a flood defence operating authority.
£000 Local authority1 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 Cornwall CC 2,275 2,252 2,228 2,278 Devon CC 2 4,973 4,955 3,388 3,447 Plymouth — — 953 960 Torbay — — 577 586 Dorset CC 3 2,711 1,672 1,706 1,773 Somerset CC 3,200 3,563 3,617 3,646 Bath and North East Somerset 412 388 602 415 North Somerset 1,414 1,547 1,595 1,627 1 Some of the above local authorities pay levies to Flood Defence Committees other than Somerset and South West. 2 Devon's SSA was reduced following creation of Plymouth and Torbay Unitary Authorities in 1998–99. 3 Dorset's SSA was reduced following creation of Bournemouth and Poole Unitary Authorities in 1997–98. MAFF grant is allocated to the Environment Agency by means of Grant Earnings Ceilings (GECs), which represent the total of approved capital expenditure in respect of which grant can be claimed, and not in terms of the grant available. The amount of grant paid is dependent on the mix of (a) fluvial and (b) tidal/sea defence expenditure, for which different grant rates apply. Information is therefore unavailable in the form requested but a comparison of (i) the original GECs (which can be revised in-year) and (ii) the actual outturn of approved capital expenditure is as follows:
£ million Somerset South West (Devon and Cornwall) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) 1996–97 4.0 4.0 4.5 5.1 1997–98 3.2 4.8 3.0 2.9 1998–99 2.7 4.5 2.2 2.1 MAFF grants to local authorities are available for schemes on the forward capital programme that meet certain criteria and achieve an appropriate priority score. The timing of expenditure is largely a matter for the authorities. Information is therefore unavailable in the form requested, but the amount of grant paid to local authorities, including a more detailed breakdown for Devon, is as follows:
£000 Devon Somerset Cornwall South Hams Torbay North Devon 1996–97 46 — — 51 — 1997–98 27 — 51 — — 1998–99 69 — — 2 3