HC Deb 13 December 1989 vol 163 cc707-9W
25. Mr. Lofthouse

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many single person households with an existing rates liability can expect to benefit from the poll tax transitional relief scheme.

Mr. David Hunt

I estimate that about 110,000 single adult households will benefit from the community charge transitional relief scheme.

26. Mr. Holt

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment by how much more the rate support grant figure for 1989–90 would be increased if 2,000 of the residents of Langbaurgh were black.

Mr. Chope

I will write to my hon. Friend.

54. Mr. Harry Barnes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what help will be available under the poll tax transitional relief scheme to private tenants who presently pay a combined rent and rates bill to their landlord.

Mr. Chope

Private tenants who pay a combined rent and rates bill to their landlord will be eligible for community charge transitional relief on the same basis as other chargepayers. They will be entitled to transitional relief provided that a comparison between their assumed rates bill for 1989–90 and either one or two assumed community charges (depending on the number of community chargepayers in the property) shows an increase of more than £156 a year.

55. Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what allowance he has made for local factors when setting the levels of community charge or poll tax which he considers will meet standard spending needs for local authorities in Northumberland.

Mr. David Hunt

My right hon. Friend's detailed proposals for the calculation of standard spending assessments were set out in the draft revenue support grant distribution report issued at the time of his announcement to the House on 6 November. The same method will apply to all authorities with similar functions and will make use of a large number of indicators to reflect local conditions.

56. Mr. Pike

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment has been made of the administrative costs of the poll tax transitional relief scheme.

Mr. Chope

An estimate of the administrative costs of the community charge transitional relief scheme will be made on the light of a study being undertaken for the Department by Peat Marwick McLintock and discussions with the local authorities associations.

77. Mr. Rooker

To ask the Secretary of State for ;he Environment when his analysis of the effect on various households types of the losses and gains upon introduction of the poll tax using the charges listed in his 6 November statement will be available.

Mr. Chope

Shortly.

Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take note of the representations made by Stoke on Trent city council expressing its concerns about the Department of Environment letter of 6 November about the loss of £18 million of Government grants to charge payers in the city; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Chope

All representations, including those from Stoke on Trent city council, will be taken into account before my right hon. Friend makes final decisions about the revenue support grant settlement for 1990–91.

Mr. Steen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 5 December,Official Report, column 120, what were the changes in the regulations to ensure that people being cared for in the community will receive the same relief from the standard community charge as those in residential care homes.

Mr. David Hunt

Regulation 6 of the Community Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Regulations 1989, which were laid before the House on 7 December, prescribes, among other things, two extra classes of property for the purposes of the standard charge. One class covers property which is unoccupied because the person who formerly lived there is resident somewhere else for the purpose of receiving personal care. The other covers property which is unoccupied because the person who formerly lived there has moved in order to provide personal care to someone else. The maximum multiplier for both classes is zero for 12 months after the property becomes unoccupied. Charging authorities have discretion to allow a longer period of relief for such properties.

Mr. Gould

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many students there are in full-time education and receiving an increase from their employers since qualifying for the 80 per cent. student discount under the poll tax rules.

Mr. Patten

I understand from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science that these statistics are not available.

Mr. Gould

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate has been made of the number of student nurses who will give up their training because they are unable to meet the full cost of their poll tax obligation.

Mr. Patten

No estimate is necessary since no such effect is likely.

Mr. Gould

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what would be the full cost of extending to student nurses the rights to poll tax rebates available to other full-time students;

(2) what is the likely number of full-time student nurses who will be obliged to pay the full cost of the poll tax.

Mr. Patten

I understand that there are approximately 43,500 pre-registration nursing students in schools of nursing, and that by the end of March next year there will be approximately 1,500 nurses being trained under Project 2,000. Project 2,000 student nurses will qualify for student relief from the community charge. Over the next few years the scheme will be extended to cover all pre-registration nursing trainees receiving their training in schools of nursing.

Based on these figures, and an average community charge of £278, the revenue forgone from extending student relief to all pre-registration students would be about £9.3 million.

Mr. Fishburn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give for each local authority the total as returned by community charges registration officers of(a) the numbers of persons subject to a personal community charge, excluding students eligible for relief under section 13 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, (b) one fifth of students eligible for relief under section 13 of the 1988 Act and (c) the estimated full-year equivalent of the number of individuals liable to contribute to a collective community charge of the authority in 1990–91, in response to the notice issued on 21 November under section 139A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. David Hunt

The response to the notice was excellent and the results demonstrate that authorities have been very successful in compiling their community charges registers. Every community charges registration officer made a return although one return received at the last minute was illegible having been corrupted in the course of facsimile transmission.

The total of the forms received is 99.95 per cent. of the Government's estimate based on OPCS information. The information for individual authorities has been laid in the Library of the House.

I do not propose to recalculate the figures circulated with the consultation letter of 6 November 1989 to local authority associations using this new information until I have completed my consideration of the representations made in response to that letter.

Mr. David Nicholson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he could give the total amounts of support from central Government for the expenditure of Somerset county council in the years 1987–88, 1988–89, and 1989–90 and the latest estimate for such support for 1990–91.

Mr. Chope

[holding answer 11 December 1989]: The available information is as follows:

Central government grants1 to Somerset county council
£ million
1987–88 89.7
1988–89 94.3
1989–90 93.5
1 Comprising rate support grant, specific and supplementary grants.

Somerset county council, as a precepting authority, will not receive revenue support grant in 1990–91 and no estimates of specific grants payable in 1990–91 are available for individual authorities.