§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review the weighting of each indicator forming the grant-related expenditure assessment for local authorities; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe grant-related expenditure formulae are reviewed each year, jointly with the local authority associations, in the grants working group. My right hon. Friend announced a number of changes to the formulae for 1984–85 in the rate support grant settlement on 14 December—[Vol. 50, c. 1003–16.] We remain ready to consider proposals for further changes.
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the criteria by which the indicators forming the grant-related expenditure assessment for local authorities are weighted.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson) on 15 December 1983. — [Vol. 50, c.555.]
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied that the weighting given to the personal social services indicator in drawing up his Department's grant-related expenditure assessment for local authorities adequately reflects the needs of those authorities representing inner city areas.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI believe that grant related expenditure assessments for personal social services represent a reasonable measure of the cost of providing a comparable level of services in different areas, including the inner city areas. But we are always ready to consider proposals for improvements; my right hon. Friend announced a number of changes to the formula for 1984–85 on 14 December.—[Vol. 50, c. 1003.]
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment in determining the grant related expenditure for interest receipts in 1984–85 why he split the grant-related expenditure between classes of authority.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThere are significant differences between classes of authority in the balances they need to hold, and in the resulting interest receipts. The aim of the new treatment is to reflect those differences more closely in the grant-related expenditure assessments.
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what are the grant-related expenditures in 1984–85 for each service in each London authority;
(2) what are the grant-related expenditures in 1984–85 for each service in each class of authority in England.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThese figures are not available at present. The corresponding figures for 1983–84 are in 95W "The Technical Handbook of Grant Related Expenditure 1983–84"—the "Green Book"—of which a copy is in the Library. The 1984–85 edition will be produced, as usual, in the spring.
§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the reasons for the Greater London council's grant-related expenditure increasing from £477 million in 1983–84 to £517 million in 1984–85.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe national total of GRE increased by 3.4 per cent. between the 1983–84 supplementary report and the 1984–85 settlement. The percentage increase for the GLC is 8.4 per cent. This above average increase is accounted for by:
- (1) the mix of services provided by the GLC
- (2) a shift of GRE between tiers within London
- (3) changes in individual GRE service formulae
The GLC provides a number of services for which there has been an above average increase in public expenditure provision; these include fire, refuse disposal and new capital. For transport, there has been an increase in the share of London GRE allocated to the GLC through the use of later information on shares of past spending. Finally, for planning and interest receipts, revised methodologies lead to an increase in the GLC's share of national GRE. There are numerous other changes in individual service GRE's which go in both directions.