§ Ms. Harmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimates he has made of the number of jobs that will be lost in (a) the Greater London council, (b) in each of the London boroughs and (c) voluntary organisations if (i) the Rates Bill is enacted and (ii) legislation based on "Streamlining the Cities" is implemented.
§ Mr. WaldegraveSince we cannot at this stage, before 1984–85 budgets are made and the list of selected authorities is drawn up, estimate the expenditure savings that will accrue from selective rate limitation, neither can we make any estimate of aggregate manpower effects on local authorities. Implementation of selective rate limitation will have beneficial effects on jobs through alleviating the heavy burden placed by high rates on non-domestic ratepayers. The effects on manpower of our proposals for reorganising local government in London will depend on detailed decisions to be taken by the successor authorities. In neither case can we give estimates for individual authorities or voluntary organisations.