§ Mr. Freeson asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) pursuant to his reply to the right hon. Member for Brent, East on Friday 31 July, Official Report, c. 593, if he will publish in the Official Report the correspondence and tables concerning the rate support grant provision for each of the inner city programme authorities in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981 at constant prices;
§ (2) pursuant to his reply to the right hon. Member for Brent, East on Friday 31 July, Official Report, c. 593, if he will publish in the Official Report the correspondence and tables concerning the rate support grant provision for each district council and London borough in the inner city partnership areas in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981 at constant prices.
§ Mr. King:The correspondence and the corrected table are attached; I draw the right hon. Member's attention in particular to paragraph 3 of my letter of 11 September, which emphasises why the figures for the different years are not comparable.
187W
£000's (1981–82 estimated outturn prices) 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 Partnership Authorities Birmingham 211,134 204,571 193,550 164,128 Gateshead 47,156 46,485 46,141 41,469 Liverpool 138,035 135,376 134,581 116,701 Manchester 140,483 135,722 130,515 109,800 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 61,022 59,503 57,974 44,160 Salford 64,550 62,999 60,747 53,603 Greenwich 37,891 40,747 39,213 34,552 Hackney 53,130 53,354 49,089 43,463 Islington 50,319 49,488 46,095 30,970 Lambeth 66,316 67,658 60,539 56,974 Lewisham 54,214 55,877 53,457 48,968 Southwark 62,852 62,488 58,306 46,801 Tower Hamlets 41,931 41,230 36,763 30,417 Newham 66,091 62,746 60,216 60,237 Programme Authorities Kingston-upon-Hull 5,557 8,774 9,519 10,642 Leicester 3,415 6,863 6,606 9,696 Middlesbrough 4,309 6,875 7,480 8,131 Nottingham 3,020 8,374 8,098 7,614 Bolton 53,847 54,093 52,345 50,254 Bradford 110,923 109,142 106,538 97,029 Leeds 130,549 128,613 126,701 115,241 North Tyneside 44,619 44,724 42,902 38,369 Oldham 51,796 51,253 48,504 48,579 Sheffield 111,446 104,280 103,896 94,417 South Tyneside 44,502 43,824 41,838 39,039 Sunderland 71,158 70,204 66,826 62,421 Wirral 67,798 65,212 62,324 54,604 Wolverhampton 49,647 47,274 47,157 38,929 Hammersmith and Fulham 41,250 41,690 39,041 35,057 Following is the corespondence:
Dear Reg,
I promised to write in response to the two Questions you asked shortly before the Recess about the rate support grant entitlements of Programme and Partnership authorities since 1978-79. I enclose a copy of the relevant extract from the Official Record.
I attach a table giving the information. Although the figures are at constant 1981-82 outturn prices, I should emphasise that they are not fully comparable; it is impossible to provide consistent figures at district level because of changes that have been made in the way grant is split between tiers.
The four Programme Authorities which are non-metropolitan districts received Needs Element for the first time in 1979-80; at the same time the grant paid to the counties was correspondingly reduced, so the change had no net effect at ratepayer level. This year, the introduction of block grant had a similar but opposite effect on London and metropolitan areas. Grant is now being paid to metropolitan counties for the first time, but the entitlements of the districts have been proportionately reduced. In London, under the old system, Needs Element was paid only to boroughs. Both Needs Element and Resources Element have now been replaced by block grant, which is calculated separately for the boroughs, the Greater London Council, ILEA and the Metropolitan Police. The apparent effect has been to reduce the grant entitlement of the boroughs. The figures must therefore be used with great caution, for unless the impossibility of making straight comparisons is spelt out, they can be highly misleading.
For the first three years, the tables show Needs Element entitlement, the Resources Element that remained in the district or borough after precepts had been taken, and London Rate Equalisation payments.
Final entitlements are shown for 1978-79, and entitlements at second Increase Order for 1979-80 and at first Increase Order for 1980-81. The 1981-82 figures take account of the change in grant percentage in that year, and show London Rate Equalisation payments and block grant entitlements as they are 188W currently being paid in accordance with the main Rate Support Grant Order, but not taking account of the proposals for grant reduction which Michael Heseltine made on 3 September. Domestic Element and Domestic Rate Relief Grant have been excluded from all the figures.
I am placing a copy of this reply in the Library.
Tom King
Minister for Local Government and Environmental Services
25 September 1981
Dear Mr. Freeson,
Mr. King wrote to you on 11 September in reply to your two Questions about the Rate Support Grant entitlements of Partnership and Programme authorities sine 1978-79.
I regret to say that the table enclosed with his letter contained a small mistake—you may have noticed the inconsistency with the text of the letter itself. The figures quoted are in £000's (1981-82 estimated outturn prices), not £ million outturn prices.
I attach a revised table with the correct heading. We are also placing a copy of this letter in the House commons Library.
Yours sincerely
Martin Brasher,
Private Secretary