HC Deb 13 March 1990 vol 169 cc184-5W
Mr. Atkinson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much Bournemouth borough council and Dorset county council will receive from the unified business rate for 1990–91; how much they received from the commercial rate in 1989–90; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Chope

The expected income from business rates for the Bournemouth area (taking account of the demands of both the district and county councils) for 1989–90 was £27.389 million. The amount the area will receive in distributed business rate in 1990–91 is £34.652 million.

Mr. Hayward

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will transfer the cost of fire and police from local authorities to central Government; and if he will estimate the average savings per full community charge payer.

Mr. Chope

The Government have no plans to make such a transfer.

Mr. Hayward

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what would be the cost of calculating transitional relief per individual as against the current practice.

Mr. Chope

The information requested is not available.

Mr. Harry Barnes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 8 March to the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East, if he will reimburse any charging authority the expenditure it is involved in when sending out revised community charge bills following any decision he may make to cap precepting authorities.

Mr. Chope

No. In such circumstances it would be for the charging authority to recover its administrative costs from the precepting authority under section 36 of the Local Government Act 1988.

Mr. French

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list any local authorities known to him which have announced their intention to levy a standard community charge at less than twice the personal community charge.

Mr. Chope

[holding answer 8 March 1990]: No information is available at present to the Department about standard community charge multipliers set by charging authorities for properties in their areas. Charging authorities have until 31 March to determine multipliers for the coming year.

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