§ Mr. George Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the amount by which Scottish local authorities may be exceeding their budgets; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. YoungerScottish local authority budget estimates for 1979–80 are £49 mil-68W lion higher in real terms than the aggregate of relevant expenditure in last year's rate support grant determination. I have asked local authorities to reduce their planned expenditure by at least that amount.
§ Mr. George Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what information he has of the details of the makeup of the cuts proposed in local authority housing budgets in Scotland in the current financial year.
§ Mr. RifkindThe savings on local authority capital programmes are to be achieved by withholding the supplementary consents which might otherwise have been given to offset underspending by certain local authorities. I expect that the savings achieved will be about £11 million at cash limit prices against total allocations of £279 million.