HC Deb 19 December 1989 vol 164 cc126-9W
Mr. Thornton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all those local authorities which in 1987–88 were responsible for more than £35 million of expenditure.

Mr. Chope

The information is as follows. Total expenditure is defined as rate fund revenue account expenditure on services plus debt charges and net contributions to other accounts (such as the housing revenue account), less interest receipts and specific and supplementary grants.

Local Authorities whose total expenditure in 1987–88 exceeded £35 million
£ million
Avon 392.6
Bedfordshire 234.0
Berkshire 283.4

£ million
Buckinghamshire 268.2
Cambridgeshire 238.1
Cheshire 435.6
Cleveland 301.1
Cornwall 181.7
Cumbria 225.3
Derbyshire 416.5
Devon 392.2
Dorset 230.8
Durham 257.8
East Sussex 249.5
Essex 599.1
Gloucestershire 207.8
Hampshire 578.8
Hereford and Worcester 251.8
Hertfordshire 365.2
Humberside 408.1
Isle of Wight 51.3
Kent 570.7
Lancashire 616.9
Leicestershire 383.7
Lincolnshire 220.1
Norfolk 273.6
Northamptonshire 237.8
Northumberland 127.7
North Yorkshire 278.5
Nottinghamshire 450.5
Oxfordshire 203.6
Shropshire 169.3
Somerset 181.6
Staffordshire 428.6
Suffolk 230.9
Surrey 334.3
Warwickshire 194.1
West Sussex 273.6
Wiltshire 216.2
Bolton 126.6
Bury 82.6
Manchester 316.5
Oldham 116.0
Rochdale 114.4
Salford 130.5
Stockport 119.9
Tameside 110.7
Trafford 92.4
Wigan 149.3
Knowsley 93.6
Liverpool 309.2
St. Helens 91.7
Sefton 130.8
Wirral 166.8
Barnsley 104.1
Doncaster 140.8
Rotherham 119.8
Sheffield 265.4
Gateshead 103.0
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 159.3
North Tyneside 100.4
South Tyneside 80.8
Sunderland 153.3
Coventry 159.9
Dudley 125.2
Sandwell 152.2
Solihull 80.3
Walsall 129.6
Wolverhampton 141.2
Bradford 254.6
Calderdale 97.2
Kirklees 196.6
Leeds 308.4
Wakefield 144.3
ILEA 975.4
City of London 71.7
Camden 156.7

£ million
Greenwich 93.3
Hackney 144.3
Hammersmith and Fulham 105.5
Islington 103.8
Kensington and Chelsea 49.3
Lambeth 152.7
Lewisham 120.2
Southwark 130.6
Tower Hamlets 125.8
Wandsworth 100.7
Westminster 91.6
Barking and Dagenham 75.2
Barnet 135.9
Bexley 101.6
Brent 184.8
Bromley 114.3
Croydon 144.2
Ealing 173.1
Enfield 128.9
Haringey 154.2
Harrow 100.2
Havering 104.8
Hillingdon 118.5
Hounslow 118.2
Kingston-upon-Thames 62.5
Merton 73.1
Newham 177.5
Redbridge 98.4
Richmond-upon-Thames 61.8
Sutton 78.0
Waltham Forest 154.5
Bristol 35.3
Leicester 36.6
Metropolitan Police Police Authority 446.9
Greater Manchester Police Authority 88.1
Merseyside Police Authority 59.3
South Yorkshire Police Authority 35.3
Northumbria Police Authority 46.3
West Midlands Police Authority 84.4
West Yorkshire Police Authority 65.1
London Fire/CD Authority 180.2
Greater Manchester Fire 41.9
West Midlands Fire 40.1
Greater Manchester Transport 76.1
Merseyside Transport 62.4
South Yorkshire Transport 45.5
Tyne and Wear Transport 55.8
West Midlands Transport 55.5
West Yorkshire Transport 58.7

Mr. Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list in the most specific detail available those people who are mentally or physically disabled who will be exempt from the community charge; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Chope

Any physically disabled person who has his sole or main residence in an NHS hospital or a residential care home, a nursing home, a mental nursing home, a private hospital or a hostel and is receiving treatment there, will be exempt from the personal charge. So far as mental disability is concerned, any person who is in receipt of an invalidity pension, severe disablement allowance, unemployability supplement, an unemployability allowance, an attendance allowance or a constant attendance allowance, and who has a certificate from a registered medical practitioner stating that his or her intelligence and social functioning is severely impaired will be exempt from the personal community charge. It is not possible to be specific about the particular disorders which may lead to such conditions being fulfilled.

Mr. John Greenway

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to make regulations on the final form of the community charge bill.

Mr. David Hunt

The Department has sent out today a letter to all charging authorities which encloses draft regulations which would provide for the final form of the bill and the explanatory notes which will accompany the bill. The purpose of sending this material out now is to enable authorities to arrange for the printing of these documents forthwith, if they wish. A copy of the letter and enclosures have been placed in the Library. I expect to lay the regulations in January.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what guidance he intends to give to those people, nominated as responsible individuals, who are in receipt of community charge changes of circumstances forms; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. David Hunt

Changes of circumstances forms are a convenient way of helping people to comply with their statutory duty to inform the community charges registration officer of any change in circumstances which affects their register entry. The responsibility for ensuring that they comply with the appropriate regulations lies with registration officers.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he has taken to monitor the issuing of changes of circumstances forms by community charge registration officers; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. David Hunt

Every individual has a duty to inform the community charges registration officer of any change of circumstances which affects his or her register entry. There is, however, no duty to volunteer such information about any other person. A responsible individual has a duty to provide information about people other than him or herself only in response to a specific request from the registration officer.

Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the percentage of income represented by rate support grant for(a) the City of Durham and (b) Basildon for (i) 1978–79 and (ii) 1988–89.

Mr. Chope

The percentages for each authority are not comparable between years because of changes to the rate support grant system in 1981–82. Nevertheless, the information is as as follows:

Rate support grant as percentage of rate fund revenue account income
Per cent. 1978–79 Per cent. 1988–89
City of Durham 64 29
Basildon 52 16