§ Mr. Douglas Hoggasked the Secretary of State for the Environment by how much (a) the average domestic rate and (b) the average commercial rate will rise in the coming financial year as a result of the proposed reduction in the rate support grant from 59 per cent. to 56 per cent.
§ Mr. KingRate increases in 1982–83 will be determined by individual local authorities in the light of their expenditure plans and their decisions on how to finance them. It is not practicable for the Government to forecast the overall result of these decisions.
The Government have proposed to reduce the grant percentage from 59.1 per cent. to 56 per cent., but have also proposed an increase of some £1 billion in the provision for local government current expenditure. It is thus difficult to make meaningful estimates of the effect on rates of the proposed reduction in the grant percentage.
§ Mr. Durantasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he proposes to publish the mid-year adjustments to the 1981–82 rate support grant and its distribution.
§ Mr. KingI have today placed in the Library of the House tables showing the proposed poundage schedule and the revised multipliers and grant-related expenditure assessments that it is proposed to determine for each authority, together with the grant entitlements that would flow from them at the levels of budgeted total expenditure most recently notified to the Department. It s not now proposed to implement grant holdback in the first supplementary report, but to do so in a further report to be laid before Parliament next year. Its possible effects are however exemplified in column (5) of the table. Althugh the figures given are exemplifications only, and not a formal notification of grant entitlements, this information, which I am sending to each local authority, will enable it to plan its expenditure on as reliable a basis as possible for the remainder of this financial year.