§ Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what information is available to him about the reserves held by the metropolitan district councils in England and Wales and the extent to which those councils have not taken up fully Exchequer and other departmental grants and allocations in the last financial year; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ShoreI receive regular financial statements from local authorities which include estimates of the revenue balances available to them. The latest estimate is that by March 1977 the rate fund balances available to metropolitan district councils were just over £200 million. These balances, however, have no direct effect on the grants paid to individual local authorities.