PUBLIC SECTOR CAPITAL SPENDING

HL Deb 09 December 1985 vol 469 cc93-4WA

Lord Diamond

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will bring up to date the Written Answer given by Lord Cockfield on 6th December 1983 (col. 1079) and also the Written Answer given by him (about the sale of council houses and the privatisation programme) to Lord Diamond's consequential Question of 8th December 1983; and also the Written Answer given by the Earl of Gowrie (about public sector debt and public service pensions) on 11th February 1985 (col. 98).

Lord Young of Graffham

There is no single definition of public sector capital spending. Figures from the national accounts, in line with the previous replies, are as follows:—

GROSS DOMESTIC FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION
£ billion, 1980 prices
1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984
By general government:
10.2	9.4	9.1	7.6	6.7	6.5	5.6	4.1	3.8	5.1	5.7
of which: receipts from council house sales:
—	- 0.1	- 0.1	- 0.2	- 0.4	- 0.5	- 0.8	- 1.0	- 1.9	- 1.4	- 1.1
by public corporations:
7.1	7.8	8.0	7.3	6.8	6.8	6.6	6.0	6.1	6.6	6.1

Source: National Income and Expenditure Blue Book, Tables 9.3 and 10.2.

The earlier Answer used a second definition of capital spending from the 1982 Public Expenditure White Paper, Cmnd. 8789. More recent White Papers have used a new definition of public sector capital spending which does not offset receipts from the sale of assets such as council houses against expenditure. However, the figures given still include a decline in capital spending by public corporations because of the transfer of some public corporations to the private sector.

PUBLIC SECTOR CAPITAL SPENDING
£ billion, real terms (base year 1983–84
1974–75	1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85
27.0	27.6	26.0	23.1	22.6	23.1	22.6	21.6	22.4	23.6	22.3

Source: Article entitled "Measuring Public Expenditure" in the August 1985 issue of Economic Trends.

Receipts from council house sales, which are not deducted from the public sector capital spending series, are:—

£ billion, real terms (base year 1983–84)
1974–75	1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85
0.1	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.6	0.7	0.8	1.4	1.9	1.4	1.3

It is not possible to update the Written Answer of 11th February 1985 because estimates of the net increase on the nation's financial liabilities in 1985 are not yet available. It will be possible to derive the first estimates from figures published in Table S1 of the February 1986 edition of Financial Statistics.