§ 47. Mr. Allan Robertsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if, in the next public expenditure White Paper, he will indicate specifically the provision made as regards (a) changes in expenditure by water authorities and (b) income arising from privatisation of their activities.
§ Mr. John PattenI expect the next public expenditure White Paper to include information about water authorities' external finance and investment similar to that published this year in part 5 of Cmnd. 9428-II.
The Government have not yet reached decisions on the possibility of privatisation for water authorities. In any case, because estimates for future receipts from special sales of assets are dependent on commercially sensitive assumptions about content, timing and market conditions, no attempt is made to break down current and future year figures.