§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) how many local authorities(a) requested meetings with ministers to discuss their funding settlement for 625W 2003–04, (b) were granted meetings with ministers as requested and (c) were refused a meeting but were subsequently called to such a meeting; [93355]
(2) what criteria were used to determine which local authorities were granted a meeting with a minister to discuss their funding settlement for 2003–04. [93356]
§ Mr. LeslieThe cover letter to the provisional local government finance settlement consultation paper stated that meeting requests should be received as early in the consultation process as possible and by the 20 December at the latest. We warned that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to offer meetings to every individual authority that would ideally like one. All meetings had to take place before the end of consultation on the 14 January.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received 51 requests before this deadline and held meetings with each of these delegations. We received nine requests for
Cash reserves1 at the beginning of the financial year £000 Year Somerset Mendip Sedgemoor Taunton on Deane South Somerset West Somerset 1990–91 14,691 475 1,999 3,458 549 1,660 1991–92 15,933 1,867 1,291 4,330 1,473 1,835 1992–93 28,183 2,509 72 5,049 1,872 1,312 1993–94 28,349 3,201 46 5,139 2,116 943 1994–95 40,560 2,408 2,167 1,674 5,638 768 1995–96 41,946 3,407 1,402 1,643 10,582 874 1996–97 26,679 3,407 3,040 6,054 8,334 974 1997–98 33,617 3,086 5,031 3,265 9,975 1,187 1998–99 31,859 3,188 5,931 3,838 9,389 1,800 1999–2000 35,070 3,824 6,045 3,213 7,396 1,200 2000–01 38,410 1,348 2,654 4,555 9,860 800 2001–02 45,225 867 5,872 4,942 10,198 928 1Cash reserves include schools' reserves, other earmarked reserves and unallocated reserves. Information is not available prior to 1990–91. Source:
RS forms 1990–91 to 2001–02