§ Mr. Hal Millerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what advice he has given local authorities about staff cuts in their attempt to cope with the reduction in the rate support grant.
§ Mr. FreesonThe rate support grant Settlement for the 1977–78 financial year announced on 22nd November 1976282W implies an overall reduction of about 20,000 to 30,000 in the total number of local government jobs in England and Wales. My right hon. Friend has already made clear that this reduction is within the rate of natural wastage for local authority employment as a whole. For this reason the Government do not consider that reductions of this order need entail any general recourse to redundancies, though the precise situation is bound to vary from authority to authority.
Following the practice established in previous years the Government intend to issue an explanatory circular once the House has approved the Government's proposals for 1977–78. The order and report on the order will be laid before the House shortly.