§ Mr. Joel Barnettasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement as to the effect on the towns in the Heywood and Royton constituency of the cuts in his Department's expenditure arising out of the statement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 17th December 1973.
§ Mr. RipponThe effect of the cuts in public expenditure will largely be to postpone projects which might have started 329W in 1974–75. Most of such projects in the sphere with which I am concerned are the responsibility of local authorities, the new regional water authorities or publicly owned transport undertakings. The only projects for which I have direct responsibility are roads and it is too soon to determine the detailed implications for individual schemes.