HC Deb 15 February 1983 vol 37 cc77-8W
Mr. Henderson

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any changes to announce in the cash limits in 1982–83 which are within his responsibility.

Mr. Younger

Class XV, Vote 17, National Library of Scotland. Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, an increase of £100,000 is required on account of delay in bringing the Scottish libraries co-operative automation project into full operation.

Class XV, Vote 15, Education, Libraries, Arts and Social Work, Scotland. The cash limit is reduced by £100,000 to offset the increase in the cash limit for Vote 17.

Cash Block SO/LA2, Capital expenditure in Scotland on housing by local authorities, etc. The cash block will be reduced by £51.622 million. The limit for this cash block was set at £507.965 million for 1982–83. But, at the beginning of the year, each local authority was set a limit for its contributions from its rate fund to its housing revenue account and authorities were told that any excess above this limit would result in a lower capital allocation than provisionally offered. Several authorities exceeded their limits and were given final capital allocations at a lower level which took account of the excess, thus permitting the cash block to be reduced.

The new cash limits are summarised as follows:

Present Cash Limit New Cash Limit
£ £
Class XV
Vote 15 110,708,000 110,608,000
Vote 17 2,663,000 2,763,000
Cash Block
SO/LA2 507,965,000 456,343,000

These changes will not add to total public expenditure.