§ 35. Mr. Elystan Morganasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give an undertaking that, following the new formulae for rate support grant now under consideration by Parliament, local government in Wales will not in real terms, and taking the maximum allowance for local authority spending into account, receive in total less rate support grant for 1973–74 than is reserved by Welsh local government in the current financial year.
§ Mr. Graham PageNo. Our negotiations with the local authority associations concerning both the amount and the distribution of the rate support grant are not yet complete. The changes that will take effect next year in the boundaries and structure of local government units, in responsibility for certain local services and in the pattern of other grants, make meaningless any direct comparison of the actual amounts of rate support grant payable to Welsh authorities for 1973–74 and 1974–75.