§ Mr. Sternasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether, in considering those local authorities to be made subject to rate capping under proposed legislation, he has any plans to take into account actual, rather than percentage, spending over target;
(2) whether, in considering those local authorities to be made subject to rate capping under proposed legislation, he will take into account the financial record of such authorities over a period of at least three years, and not limit his consideration to the 1984–85 budget figures.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI am aware that year on year rate increase figures may be significantly reduced by the use of reserves. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has made it clear that in selecting authorities for rate limitation we shall be looking for authorities whose expenditure is very substantially in excess of GRE and which are not showing themselves ready to make satisfactory reductions without the need for selection. For that we shall be looking at councils' performance against their spending target. Because of the variation in the size of local authorities' budgets, it would be misleading to compare authorities on the basis of their actual spending over target.