§ Mr. CLARRYasked the Minister of Transport whether the £100,000,000 five-year road plan recently announced by him as projected Government expenditure is in addition to existing annual expenditure from all Government sources; and what his estimated total expenditure from all Government sources, excluding local authorities' expenditure, will be for the current financial year and the next further financial year, together with the comparable figures for each of the past 10 years?
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAThe figure of £100,000,000 represents the estimated cost of the works embraced in the five-year programmes of road development and improvement put forward by the highway authorities at the request of the Government. The Road Fund's contribution to the programme is in addition to the grants usually made from the fund towards the cost of maintaining classified roads in counties and for certain other purposes and the payment towards the General Exchequer Contribution under the Local Governments Acts, and to certain long-term schemes.
The payments out of the Road Fund during the current year and the previous 1568W ten years in respect of grants to highway authorities, including the amounts paid out of the fund towards the General Exchequer Contribution to local revenues distributed under the Local Government Acts, 1929, are as follow:
£ Millions. 1925–26 16.2 1926–27 17 1927–28 18.7 1928–29 17 1929–30 19.8 1930–31 27 1931–32 28.7 1932–33 23 1933–34 19.6 1934–35 18.5 Estimate 1935–36 20 An estimate of the payments during the financial year 1936–37 is not yet available.