§ Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what he now expects the total expenditure of local authorities to be during the present financial year; and what account he has taken of the views expressed by councillors on this subject in making his estimate.
§ Mr. KingI shall not be in a position to estimate the provisional outturn of local authority expenditure for 1979–80 or the planned expenditure for 1980–81 until the preliminary analysis of the annual return of expenditure and rates has been completed—late spring or early summer. Until then I cannot add to the answer I gave the hon. Member on 10 December 1979.—[Vol. 975, c. 477.].