§ Dr. Mawhinneyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will discount from local authorities' overall capital allocation the capital costs of gipsy site provision which are 100 per cent. grant-aided by the Government
§ Mr. WaldegraveWe have no plans to do so. In accordance with standard practice in respect of grants from central Government to local authorities, the expenditure to be financed from the grants made for gipsy site provision is taken into account in determining the total amount of provision available for distribution to local authorities as prescribed expenditure allocations. The capital grants themselves do not count as public expenditure, so it would not be appropriate to allow expenditure financed from them to be an addition to local authorities' capital allocations.