§ Sir G. de Freitasasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the result of the weighting in the social needs formula on rate support grant for counties with rapidly expanding populations.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettIt is not possible to generalise about the effects of the social need factors in the needs element formula on growing authorities. There is no
1977–78 Non-Metropolitan and Metropolitan Districts (a) Old people living alone 34 per cent. of total needs element. (b) Persons living in buildings without basic amenities (c) Overcrowded living conditions (d) Persons living in shared households in permanent buildings (e) One-parent families with dependent children (f)Unemployed persons London (a), (c) and (g) Children under 5 years (k) Families with 3 or more children (l) Children in care 1975–76 Old persons living alone 13 per cent. of total needs dement. Personal social Service units It should be noted that in 1975–76 the needs grant payment per head of population was far greater than that in 1977–78.
§ Sir G. de Freitasasked the Secretary of State for the Environment why the rate support grant for Northamptonshire has been reduced and not increased from £35,262,000 in 1976–77 to take account of inflation.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettWhen making the rate support grant settlement the Government took into account the likely effects of inflation as well as other factors. In deciding upon the distribution of the grant the Government decided to redistribute the needs element of the grant towards areas with the most pressing economic and social needs. The effect of688W evidence presently available to show that current expenditure needs per head of growing authorities increase relative to the expenditure needs of other authorities.
§ Sir G. de Freitasasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the percentage of the total needs element in the rate support grant distribution formula distributed by the social needs factors; and how the percentage has varied between 1975–76 and 1977–78.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettIt is difficult to say just which of the indicators used in the RSG needs grant formula can be regarded as social factors. For example, the factors for the number of school and further education pupils can reflect expenditure need for personal social services as well as for education. But the following shows the percentage of grant distributed by the factors given below in the two years at main Rate Support Grant Order stage:
this decision combined with the reduction of the grant percentage from 651 per cent. to 61 per cent. was to provide Northamptonshire with a needs grant at main RSG Order stage of £32.5 million in 1977–78 compared with £32.8 million in 1976–77.
§ Sir G. de Freitasasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government that rate support should be concentrated on areas where the burden of rates is heavy.
§ Mr. Guy BarnettThe Government's policy is to concentrate needs element of the rate support grant on those areas with the most pressing social and economic problems. Authorities with increasing rate poundages do, however, benefit 689W throught the resources element, where their rateable values per head is below the national standard of RV per head.