§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment, under the distribution of the resources element for 1980–81 where the clawback applies, how the Government will ensure that if a district has underspent while a county has overspent only the overspending authority will be penalised and vice versa.
§ Mr. KingThe transitional arrangement, if applied, would affect the uniform rate and consequently entail losses for both county and district. If this arose as a result of high spending by a county, the effect will be felt by all the ratepayers in that county who all benefit from the county expenditure. If it arose as a result of overspending by a district council, the effect on the county should be small.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when the block grant system is introduced for 1981–82 (a) how the calculation will be made for each authority and (b) how many additional civil servants will be required.
§ Mr. KingThe main principles of the block grant calculation are as follows. Each local authority will receive sufficient grant to bridge the gap between its expenditure and the product of a standard rate poundage. The standard rate poundage will depend on the relationship between the authority's budgeted expenditure and its standard expenditure—that is the expenditure which authorities with similar characteristics and circumstances would on average be likely to incur in providing a normal standard of service. The details of the scheme have still to be worked out in consultation with the local authority associations. I do not envisage386W that the number of civil servants in this Department will increase as a result of the new arrangements.