§ Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the Government will now base their expenditure targets for local authorities on an assessment of their present and future needs rather than their previous levels of expenditure.
§ Mr. WaldegraveIn the provisional targets for 1984–85 which my right hon. Friend issued for consultation in August, the starting-point was not an authority's previous spending levels, but the higher of its target and grant-related expenditure assessment for 1983–84. There were, however, two main constraints: no authority's target could be more than 3 per cent. above, or 6 per cent. below, its budget for 1983–84 A large number of authorities have made representations about this proposed methodology, and we are considering them carefully before taking final decisions.