§ Dr. Marekasked the Prime Minister, pursuant to her answer of 3 May, Official Report, column 536, whether the starting point for calculating the rise in domestic rates over the quoted period 1979 to 1983 was the financial year 1978–79; and whether her calculation therefore takes as a base the rate levels in April 1978.
§ The Prime MinisterThe percentage increase in average domestic rates in England quoted in the answer referred to, as well as the percentage increase quoted for both average earnings and the RPI, relates to the period April 1979 to April 1983. (The base for the calculation was thus the level in April 1979.)
§ Dr. Marekasked the Prime Minister to what extent the figures for the percentage rise in domestic rates between 1979 and 1983 given in her answer of 3 May, Official Report, column 536, are accounted for by (a) the progressive reduction by Government of the grant percentage from 61 per cent. in 1978–79 to 53.8 per cent. in 1983–84 and (b) the non-indexation of domestic rate relief at 18.5 pence over the period in question.
§ The Prime MinisterIt is not possible to isolate the effect that the reduction in grant percentage, of which domestic rate relief is a component, had had on domestic rates. This would depend, inter alia, on the level of local authority spending that would have occurred in the absence of the downward pressure imposed upon it by the reduction in grant percentage. What can be said is that if local authorities in England had spent in line with the Government's targets, rate increases in each of the last four years would have been lower than the general rate, of inflation.