§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the factors which account for the fact that Surrey's share of the national block grant has fallen by 31 per cent. since 1980–81.
§ Mr. WaldegraveVirtually all of Surrey county council's fall in share of block grant since 1980–81 is attributable to reductions in the proportion of local authority expenditure met by central Government grant. This has been reduced from 60.1 per cent. in 1980–81—for England—to 52.8 per cent. in 1983–84 as part of the Government's policy of reducing the burden of public expenditure. Reductions in the overall level of grant support bear equally on ratepayers across the country in rate poundage terms. But for authorities like Surrey with relatively high rateable resources and relatively low needs, this produces larger cash reductions in grant and lowers their share of the total.
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the factors which account for the fact that Kent's share of the national block grant has increased by 2 per cent. since 1980–81.
§ Mr. WaldegraveKent county council's share of block grant has increased from 2.43 per cent. in 1980–81 to 2.57 per cent. in 1983–84. The 1980–81 figure is an estimate of combined needs and resources element paid on a comparable basis to block grant. The 1983–84 share is at first supplementary report, calculated before holdback.
Block grant, like its predecessor, is designed to enable authorities to provide comparable levels of services for the same rate in the pound. An authority's share of block grant can change from year to year for many reasons. For example, reductions in the overall level of Exchequer grant support, like those which have occurred since 1980–81, bear equally on authorities in rate poundage terms but produce differential changes in grant share. Other factors accounting for changes in grant share since 1980–81 include the changeover to the new system of block grant in 1981–82, changes in assessed needs as measured by grant related expenditure—GREs—and the expenditure behaviour of authorities.
It is not possible without much detailed analysis to quantify the effect of all these factors. However, in the case of Kent, no one factor stands out as being the major contributory cause of the increase in grant share.
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment on what grounds, and by what statutory 443W authority, he disregards 25 per cent. of the rateable valuation of all properties in the Greater London council area when calculating block grant payments due to local authorities in London.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI refer my hon. Friend to paragraph 30 and annex L to the "Rate Support Grant Report (England) 1983/84", approved by this House on 20 January 1983, a copy of which is in the Library.