HL Deb 23 May 1988 vol 497 cc763-4WA
Lord Mulley

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proposals they have to compensate fully local authorities for the extra expenditure they will incur, when the Local Government Finance Bill is enacted, in

  1. (a) establishing the system, and
  2. (b) administering the system in subsequent years.

The Earl of Caithness

Our arrangements for dealing with the costs of the community charge are designed to ensure that charging authorities have the resources to make sensible preparations for the new system and that the administrative costs of collection will not fall unfairly on ratepayers or chargepayers.

Lord Mulley

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will give an undertaking that no additional costs incurred in establishing the new system for local government finance and maintaining it, will fall to be met by ratepayers or payers of the community charge.

The Earl of Caithness

We have said that the reasonable costs to charging authorities of preparing for and collecting the community charge will be reflected in capital allocations and grant settlements. We will address what those costs are when we receive and have studied the Price Waterhouse report.