§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the steps required to convert current expenditure, public expenditure survey definition, to current expenditure, rate support grant definition, in 1980–81; and how far the steps will be different in 1981–82 and 1982–83.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how the figure for local authority current expenditure in England in 1981–82 as published in the March 1981 public expenditure White Paper, and the figure of £18 billion for local authority current expenditure, rate support grant definition, in 1982–83 are related; and how the Chancellor's statement of 2 December 1981 changed the latter figure from what it otherwise would have been.
§ Mr. KingThe figure of £18 billion for local authority current expenditure—RSG definition—for England for 1982–83 represents an increase of £1,820 million cash on the equivalent figure for England for 1981–82 published in 239W table 4.3 of Cmnd. 8175. There have been only very minor changes in definition of current expenditure between the two years.
As my right hon. Friend said in the RSG debate on 16 February—[Vol. 18, c. 155–56.]—the £18 billion represents an increase of about £1 billion over the figure envisaged for 1982–83 in Cmnd. 8175.