HC Deb 18 April 1990 vol 170 cc864-6W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether expenditure on rubbish collection, street cleaning and campaigns against litter will be excluded from relevant expenditure for rate-capping purposes unless it is deemed excessive;

(2) whether expenditure on sheltering the homeless will be excluded from relevant expenditure for rate-capping purposes unless such expenditure is deemed excessive;

(3) whether that expenditure for protecting children against abuse will be excluded from relevant expenditure for rate-capping purposes;

(4) whether the expenditure of public funds for building indoor lavatories in state schools will be excluded from relevant expenditure for rate-capping purposes;

(5) what categories of expenditure he will exclude from relevant expenditure for charge-capping purposes.

Mr. Chope

My right hon. Friend has not excluded any categories of an authority's expenditure for the purposes of his capping decisions which he announced to the House on 3 April.

Mr. Robert Banks:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list, with their rates of community charge, those authorities which do not receive assistance from the safety net provisions and which also do not give to the safety net fund.

Mr. David Hunt

I am arranging for copies of the information to be placed in the Library of the House.

Mr. Hardy

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those local authorities which have announced a community charge which is higher than that determined by the metropolitan borough of Rotherham.

Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will now list the poll tax figure and safety net figure for every local authority.

Mr. Chope

I refer the hon. Members to the answer that my hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities gave today to my hon. Friend for Harrogate (Mr. Banks).

Mr. Tom Arnold

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information will be provided to him by local authorities for the purpose of assessing the impact of the community charge on charge payers, by district, age and income.

Mr. Chope

None.

Mr. Riddick

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will estimate the level of local income tax which would be payable by(a) a man and (b) a woman on average earnings in 1989–90 and 1990–91 based on Kirklees council's planned budgets for those years.

Mr. Chope

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack) on 4 April 1990,Official Report, column 665.

Mr. Bradley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the circumstances under community charge regulations in which there can be a personal community charge payer and a standard community charge payer living at the same address.

Mr. Chope

Liability to the standard community charge can arise only on the owner or lessee of a domestic property which is not used as the sole or main residence of another person or persons.

Mr. Bradley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his latest estimate of the cost of administration and collection of the poll tax in 1990–91(a) in Greater Manchester and (b) in Manchester Withington; and what were the respective costs of administration and collection of domestic rates in 1989–90.

Mr. Chope

Information on the administration and collection costs of the community charge in 1990–91 is not yet available. Separate figures are not available for the cost of domestic rate collection, but the latest estimate provided by local authorities of the total cost of rate collection in 1989–90 is £11,332,000 for the Greater Manchester area. Figures for the Withington area of Manchester are not separately available, but the figure for Manchester city council is £2,467,000.

Mr. Brandon-Bravo

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the budgeted spend for 1989–90 for each authority, with the equivalent spend uprated by inflation for 1990–91 and the community charge per adult such a spending programme would result in.

Mr. Chope

I am arranging for copies of the expenditure for 1989–90 for each authority to be placed in the Library of the House. Information about the assumed expenditure for 1990–91 and the resulting community charge per adult was placed in the Library on 11 January 1990.

Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of the cost for each local authority of poll tax capping relating to(a) reviewing expenditure at service provision to meet his requirements and (b) preparing and sending out new poll tax bills.

Mr. Chope

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Wentworth (Mr. Hardy) earlier today.

Mr. French

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those local authorities known to him which have announced their intentions to extend beyond three months the period when a community charge is not payable in respect of empty and unfurnished property.

Mr. Chope

[holding answer 4 April 1990]: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to him on 4 April 1990, Official Report, column 665.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will update the list provided in his answer to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside, of 12 March,Official Report, column 105, of regulations governing the introduction of the community charge and the uniform business rate which have yet to be (a) laid before the House and (b) debated by the House.

Mr. David Hunt

[holding answer 5 April 1990]: The regulations still to be laid before the House are as follows:

The Community Charge

  1. 1. The form of substitute bills to be prescribed following a change in budget or precept.
  2. 2. Adjustments to rates recoverable or written off after 1 April 1990 relating to earlier years.

National Non-Domestic Rates

3. Payment of interest on overpaid rates.

The last debate on a negative resolution took place in the House on 26 March 1990, while an affirmative resolution was debated on 29 March 1990. None of the remaining regulations requires affirmative resolution.