§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the cost to his Department of administering the rate support grant in each year from 1979–80 to 1987–88.
§ Mr. RidleyAn approximate estimate for the financial year 1986–87 based on the costs of staff effort and of printing, computing and so on is £1.4 million. The cost in 1987–88 may be about £1.2 million. These estimates do not include certain other costs, such as accommodation, which cannot easily be attributed to particular functions. Consistent figures for earlier years are not available.
§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the rate poundage implied for each authority at taxpayer level by the rate support grant for 1988–89, assuming that each authority meets his Department's spending assumption, with no additions to or withdrawals from funds or balances, and assuming 1987–88 penny rate products; and if he will list, on a class and ranked basis, each authority's 1987–88 rate poundage, showing the difference between 1987–88 poundage and the implied one for 1988–89 and showing the resulting percentage change.
§ Mr. RidleyI have today placed the information in the Library.
§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what changes were made to the method of calculating grant-related expenditure in each rate support grant settlement from 1981–82 to 1988–89.
§ Mr. RidleyChanges to the method of calculating grant related expenditure assessment in each rate support grant settlement are as follows:
1982–83
Changes to GRE components for:
Education
increase the weight given to additional educational needsdouble the weighting of ethnic minorities within the additional educational needs indicator120Wto introduce a component for the young unemployed to be distributed on youth unemploymentto distribute debt charges arising from pre 1981–82 capital expenditure on past years' actual debt chargesPersonal social services, miscellaneous
to base the assessed need for provision on a regression estimation against an indicator of housing and social conditions in place of the previous per capita distributionPassenger transport
to distribute debt charges arising from pre 1981–82 capital expenditure on a past year's actual debt charges and introduction of a new GRE component (with a negative central total) for:Interest receipts
to be distributed on all other assessed GRE's.1983–84
Changes to GRE components for:
Education
to widen the scope of adult education GRE to include non-release part-time day courses in addition to evening-only courses; but to leave the basis of distribution unchanged;to replace, in the component for school meals and milk, the indicator of numbers of pupils receiving free school meals with a new indicator of pupils in families whose head is in receipt of supplementary benefits.Passenger transport revenue support
to allocate a proportion solely to metropolitan counties and to distribute this between them on the basis of loaded train miles.Sports and parks and parish precepts
to amalgamate into a single GRE component ('recreation'); and to omit the visitor rights indicator from the assessment.Rate collection
to omit the rateable values indicators from the assessment.Coast protection
to change the basis of distribution from population of coastal authorities to length of protected coastline;and introduction of a new explicit GRE component for: building regulations — to be distributed on the number of building regulation applications determined.1984–85
Changes to GRE components for:
121WEducation
a change to the sparseness of population indicator need in the component for secondary education to remove school size.Personal social services
complete change to the methodology.Probation
removal of the population density indicator.Housing outside the HRA
to include an indicator of numbers in private rented accommodation.Economic development
to distribute on the basis of numbers of unemployed.Building control
to divide the control total initially between inner London, including GLC and other authorities on the basis of past spending to reflect the different responsibilities in inner London.Interest receipts
to divide the negative control total initially between the classes of authority on the basis of past levels of interest receipts.1985–86
Changes to the GRE components for:
Passenger transport revenue support
distributed on a public transport demand factor and loaded train miles;Normal road maintenance, winter maintenance and street lighting
distributed on road lengths, road usage and severity of winter weather;Contribution to the housing revenue account
change to the methodology to take into account more recent information for various items and to project separately each major HRA item.Recreation
to introduce a new methodology based on the product of numbers in need of recreational facilities and the unit cost of providing them;Cemeteries and crematoria
to distribute on numbers of deaths.Enhancement of the method of adjusting for higher labour costs in and around London differentiating by groups of services according to the share of costs nationally relating to direct manpower expenditure and the local labour content of non-labour costs in each service grouping.
1986–87
Changes to GRE components for:
Concessionary fares
to change the basis of distribution from numbers of elderly to a client group assessment of the numbers in need of public transport and its availability;Local authority support for local rail networks
to take account of all rail services rather than just those British Rail services supported under s.20 of the Transport Act 1968, and change the basis of distribution from loaded train miles to a combination of rail route mileage and network infrastructure costs in each metropolitan area:122W
Table 1: Grant-related expenditure by class of authority, 1981–82 to 1988–89 £ million 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. 3rd SR Shire districts 1,243 1,267 1,400 1,374 1,470 1,468 1,414 1,436 1,462 1,465 Shire counties 8,300 8,378 8,934 8,906 9,287 9,276 9,770 9,826 10,442 10,476 Metropolitan districts 3,489 3,528 3,762 3,729 3,891 3,873 3,978 3,997 4,187 4,194 Metropolitan counties 786 802 864 862 927 927 996 1,005 1,186 1,190 City of London 11 13 16 16 17 17 16 16 17 17 Inner London boroughs 573 583 643 628 678 664 661 664 729 732 Outer London boroughs 1,437 1,452 1,562 1,548 1,616 1,606 1,628 1,635 1,708 1,717 ILEA 468 468 514 509 517 513 533 532 555 525 GLC 406 427 481 457 480 464 517 525 549 548 Education
to distribute debt charges arising from pre 1981–82 capital expenditure on the basis of all other education assessed GREs; and to sub-divide the sparseness of population indicator into two indicators reflecting differing degrees of sparseness;Personal social services
to change the basis of distribution of costs of social workers and social services central management and administration to assessed social services GRE for children and the elderly;Refuse collection and waste disposal
to modify the density of population indicator in each case.1987–88
Changes to GRE components for:
The police service
to change the basis of distribution to police establishments;Personal social services
to combine the PSS categories for children aged under 5 and aged 5 to 17;Education
to include fully the cost of pupils, not belonging to the area of any authority in the 'no area' pool and to exclude them from the numbers of school pupils indicators;Roads maintenance (winter)
to substitute air frost for grass frost in the weather adjustment factor;Housing revenue account
to modify the treatment of an earlier assessed rent increase;andIntroduction of new GRE components forAirports debt chargesPublic transport pension paymentsboth to be distributed on the basis of authorities' actual' expenditure.1988–89
Changes to GRE components for:
Non-advanced further education
to include all YTS students in the indicator for non-advanced further education students;Housing benefits
to modify the proportion of certificated and non-certificated housing benefits qualifying for GRE, to reflect changes to be made to the financing of housing benefits by DHSS from 1 April 1988;Building regulations
to change the basis of distribution from number of building regulation applications determined to numbers of domestic and non-domestic properties.
§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the total of grant-related expenditure, by service and in total, at rate support grant settlement and at estimated outturn, in each year from 1981–82 to 1988–89, by class.
§ Mr. RidleyThe available information is as follows:
123W
1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. 3rd SR Metropolitan police 268 274 338 327 346 348 367 367 385 389 Isles of Scilly 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 England 16,982 17,194 18,515 18,357 19,231 19,156 19,882 20,003 21,221 21,254
1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 Sett. 3rd SR Sett. 1st SR Sett Shire districts 1,617 1,614 1,540 1,540 1,601 Shire counties 11,059 11,150 11,628 11,909 12,894 Metropolitan districts 5,040 5,082 5,232 5,348 5,744 Joint fire authorities 152 152 167 167 173 Joint police authorities 328 328 363 363 408 Joint transport authorities 284 282 305 305 303 City of London 24 24 34 34 37 Inner London boroughs 1,112 1,107 1,149 1,149 1,190 Outer London boroughs 2,081 2,088 2,167 2,210 2,384 ILEA 545 547 559 580 631 London Fire and CD Authority 125 126 136 136 142 Metropolitan police 421 421 460 460 498 Isles of Stilly 2 2 2 2 2 England 22,790 22,924 23,742 24,202 26,006
Table 2: Grant-related Expenditure by Service, 1981–82 to 1988–89 £ million 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. Final SR Sett. 3rd SR Education, arts & libraries 9,367 10,217 10,349 10,329 10,624 10,650 11,093 11,093 Personal Social Services 1,643 1,943 2,085 2,081 2,205 2,208 2,366 2,366 Law and Order 1,479 1,649 1,785 1,789 1,890 1,893 2,008 2,022 Transport 1,286 1,373 1,398 1,387 1,487 1,497 1,733 1,733 Employment and Consumer Protection 100 107 110 110 115 115 118 118 Housing 509 591 536 561 514 538 628 628 Environment Services 2,176 2,405 2,507 2,470 2,520 2,558 2,652 2,672 Financing items 423 230 461 430 527 544 622 622 Total 16,982 17,194 18,515 18,357 19,231 19,156 19,882 20,003 21,221 21,254
1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 Sett. 3rd SR Sett. 1st SR Sett. Education, arts and libraries 11,618 11,729 12,576 13,036 13,939 Personal Social Services 2,553 2,553 2,757 2,757 2,913 Law and order 2,152 2,152 2,363 2,363 2,555 Transport 1,929 1,929 2,045 2,045 2,024 Employment and Consumer Protection 127 127 148 148 159 Housing 826 829 825 825 816 Environment Services 2,926 2,945 3,000 3,000 3,137 Financing items 660 660 29 29 464 Total 22,790 22,924 23,742 24,202 26,006 Notes:
1. Outturn figures for 1985–86 onwards are not yet available so latest supplementary report figures have been used. For 1983–84, 1984–85 and 1986–87 the latest data are as in the consultation papers issued by the Department of the Environment to each local authority on 9 December 1987.
2. Service breakdowns of the final 1981–82 and 1982–83 GREs are not available.
3. Figures may not sum due to rounding.