§ Mr. Peter Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about local authority current expenditure on education in 1985–86.
§ Sir Keith JosephCurrent expenditure by local authorities on education, which accounts for about half the total on all services, must be contained within the total of targets of £21.8 billion for 1985–86 announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment earlier today.
Provisional targets for next year, when school rolls will continue to fall, represent an average increase of just over 3 per cent. on budgets for this year for expenditure on all services by authorities which are education authorities, excluding those to be rate-capped. (This is after making allowance for the abolition of the national insurance surcharge, the planned reduction in local authority expenditure on non-advanced further education corresponding to the increase in spending by the Manpower Services Commission announced in "Training for Jobs", Cmnd. 9135 and changes in the arrangements for transport supplementary grant.)
Academic Year "Elsewhere" rate Maintenace Grant* Percentage value in real terms† (September 1974 = 100) Minimum award Percentage value in real terms† (September 1974 = 100) 1974–75 605 100.00 50 100.00 1975–76 740 96.95 50 79.02 1976–77 875 100.01 50 69.15 1977–78 1,010 99.81 80 95.66 1978–79 1,100 100.83 200 221.83 1979–80 1,245 97.97 335 318.96 1980–81 1,430 97.14 385 316.45 1981–82 1,535 93.58 410 302.45 1982–83 1,595 90.64 410 281.93 1983–84 1,660 89.72 410 268.14 *For undergraduate students living away from the parental home, and not in London. †Percentage change in grant divided by percentage change in the Retail Price Index (RPI). Information is not available to enable a full comparison to be made with other European countries over the period.