§ Mr. John Huntasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he can now say how he proposes to deal with the issue raised by the London borough of Bromley regarding the level of grant payment for the upkeep of the highways to be transferred from the Greater London council to Bromley after abolition.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI intend to deal with this matter in the first supplementary report for 1986–87 later this year. I intend then(a) to redetermine settlement multipliers for London boroughs to allow for the revised disaggregation of highway maintenance expenditure based on inherited road lengths and road usage; and(b) to redetermine multipliers to limit the grant losses faced by ratepayers arising from this change to the equivalent of a 2p rate. This is a temporary arrangement and will be removed in a subsequent supplementary report for 1986–87.
These changes will mean that Bromley will receive the proper amount of grant for taking over responsibility for highway maintenance in Bromley from the GLC.
Details of the redetermined multipliers, before the application of the limit on grant losses, are shown in the table. I am consulting the local authority associations about the basis for calculating the safety net.
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Revised Multipliers: London Revised multiplier No limit on losses Greater London City of London 0.707000 Camden 0.707000 Greenwich 0.541808 Hackney 0.567019 Hammersmith and Fulham 0.710590
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Revised multiplier No limit on losses Islington 0.556172 Kensington and Chelsea 0.781920 Lambeth 0.561957 Lewisham 0.629303 Southwark 0.548738 Tower Hamlets 0.376481 Wandsworth 0.740898 Westminster 0.707000 Barking and Dagenham 0.795599 Barnet 0.778298 Bexley 0.796815 Brent 0.824677 Bromley 0.759661 Croydon 0.838416 Ealing 0.836716 Enfield 0.787557 Haringey 0.740096
Revised multiplier No limit on losses Harrow 0.802436 Havering 0.801062 Hillingdon 0.781005 Hounslow 0.787482 Kingston-upon-Thames 0.780031 Merton 0.787337 Newham 0.853127 Redbridge 0.784438 Richmond-upon-Thames 0.784701 Sutton 0.803795 Waltham Forest 0.728424 ILEA 0.707000 London Fire and CD authority 0.749415 Metropolitan police 0.767730