HC Deb 27 June 1988 vol 136 cc101-2W
Mr. Soley

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing the share of total public spending taken up by housing spending(a) in Great Britain and (b) in England, in each of the years from 1974 to 1987.

Mr. Major

The table shows, for Great Britain and England, identifiable public expenditure on the housing function as a percentage of total identifiable public expenditure:

Percentages
Great Britain England
1982–83 4.0 3.7
1983–84 4.4 4.1
1984–85 4.1 4.0
1985–86 3.4 3.3
1986–87 3.0 2.8

The term "identifiable expenditure" refers to expenditure that can be indentified from official records as having been incurred in a particular territory. Total identifiable expenditure accounts for just over 80 per cent. of total public departmental expenditure: it excludes expenditure on defence, overseas aid and other overseas services which are deemed to have been incurred on behalf of the United Kingdom as a whole. It also excludes Government net landing to, and the market and overseas borrowing of, the public corporations (including nationalised industries), due to the difficulty of allocating this finance to expenditure in a particular country.

Planning total by department and spending authority plans for 1982–83
£ million
Central government Local authorities Public corporations Planning total
Voted in Estimates Other Voted in Estimates Other Voted in Estimates Other Total
Cash limited Other
Departments
Defence 14,395 -4 6 -33 14,401 -37 14,364
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1,360 106 44 34 -54 1,501 -10 1,490
European Communities -111 -985 1,685 -1096 1,685 589
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 334 1,207 -4 213 50 -2 1,591 207 1,798
Trade and Industry 398 1,720 -350 62 892 -551 3,009 -840 2,169
Energy 315 84 -4 700 -193 1,099 -197 902
Employment 1,470 341 491 85 12 -2 1,823 575 2,398
Transport 923 150 -6 2,379 887 6 1,960 2,379 4,338
DOE—Housing 29 1,086 327 1,143 117 8 1,233 1,478 2,711
DOE—Other environmental services 226 6 2,952 109 257 340 3,208 3,549

Figures prior to 1982–83 are not available on a consistent basis because of changes in definition that have taken place between different public expenditure White Papers. Figures for 1987–88 are not yet available.