§ Mr. LathamTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the cost to public funds in the current financial year, and with retrospective effect to 6 April, of increasing the entitlement to transitional relief so as to reflect the actual community charge levied rather than the figures assumed by the Government for local authorities.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont[holding answer 23 May 1990]: Basing the community charge transitional relief on actual charges would have increased the cost of the scheme by over £1 billion in England. Transitional relief was designed to give some protection to households in the changeover to the new system; it was not designed to insulate charge payers from increases in local authority spending.