§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment in determining the revenue support grant level for 1992–93, what recognition has been given to the fact that local authorities are experiencing difficulties in selling surplus assets at reasonable prices and that fewer tenants are willing to take on a mortgage to purchase their council house.
§ Mr. KeyTotal standard spending for 1992–93 represents the Government's view of the appropriate amount of revenue spending by local authorities to provide services to a standard level taking account of what can be afforded nationally. Within that total, allowance is made for the revenue consequences of capital spending —any factors affecting the potential for generating capital receipts have been considered in reaching a view about that figure.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the basis of his assessment that the need for revenue resources to finance capital expenditure by local authorities will fall by £133 million next year; and if he expects local authorities to reduce their capital316W programmes by this amount, or whether equivalent resources have been transferred to capital credit approvals for next year.
§ Mr. KeyTotal standard spending (TSS) for 1992–93 has been determined to permit an appropriate level of revenue spending on all local authority services, bearing in mind the need for efficiency and taking a realistic view of what taxpayers locally and nationally can afford. Within that, the total amount allowed for capital spending financed from revenue represents the Government's view of the relative priority to be accorded to this type of financing. It is, however, for individual authorities to determine their spending priorities as between services and their preferred methods of financing that expenditure.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the factors on which his assumption that the revenue support grant will enable local authorities to increase their interest received on cash flow balances etc. by £293 million are based.
§ Mr. KeyThe element within standard spending assessments which takes account of the interest received on balances etc. will in fact be £292 million lower for 1992–93 on the basis of the proposals announced by my right hon. Friend on 26 November. This is because of a decrease in the assumed rate of interest on such receipts.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when local authorities will receive their credit approvals for 1992–93.
§ Mr. KeyLocal authorities' basic credit approvals (BCAs) are calculated by reference to each authority's annual capital guidelines (ACGs), which are issued by the Secretary of State responsible for each service block. I hope it will be possible for all 1992–93 ACGs to be issued by Christmas. BCAs will be issued as soon as possible thereafter.
Local authorities may also receive supplementary credit approvals (SCAs) for certain types of project or programmes, which may be issued by the appropriate Minister up to six months after the end of the financial year to which the SCA relates.
§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what facilities his Department has provided for staff from different local authorities to meet and exchange experiences of the use of bailiffs in poll tax recovery; and at what cost to public funds.
§ Mr. KeyNone. However, the local taxation working party, on which my Department and the local authority associations are represented, has discussed on a number of occasions the use of bailiffs in community charge enforcement.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of revenue support grant has been transferred to highways capital allocations; what is the overall financial impact; and why the transfer was necessary.
§ Mr. KeyWithin the proposals for the 1992–93 revenue support grant settlement £100 million of expenditure on highway maintenance has been reclassified as capital rather than current spending. This represents 6 per cent. of the standard spending assessment for highway maintenance 1991–92. There will be a corresponding uplift in 317W the available capital resources through an increase of £50 million in both transport supplementary grant and credit approvals. This switch is part of a phased programme announced by the Department of Transport in 1989. It will bring the treatment of local authority spending on structural maintenance into line with that of central Government, which is already treated as capital.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the likely impact of the reduction in the standard spending assessment on the provision of services by local authorities.
§ Mr. KeyUnder my right hon. Friend's proposals the total of standard spending assessments for local authorities in England will increase by 6.8 per cent.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the basis on which the level of interest rate received on capital receipts is assumed by the standard spending assessment to fall by 12 per cent.
§ Mr. KeyThe interest rate used to calculate the provisional 1992–93 SSA element for interest on capital receipts at 10 per cent. is 1 per cent. less than that used for the 1991–92 settlement. That rate is based on an average of short and long-term interest rates for August 1991. The precise weighting of the various rates reflects the pattern of borrowing by all local authorities.
§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will issue guidelines to local authority officers on their response to requests from district auditors to give examples of helpful and unhelpful actions by council members in regard to poll tax recovery procedures; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the impact on metropolitan districts of the changed methodology on the ability of different classes of authorities to generate interest receipts: how much shire counties and outer London boroughs benefited in real terms by this change; and how much metropolitan districts lost.
§ Mr. KeyThe proposal to change the method by which the interest receipts element of the 1992–93 SSA is distributed results in a cash increase in SSA for the shire counties of £72.271 million; and slight decreases for the metropolitan districts and outer London boroughs of £0.709 million and £1.019 million respectively. The figures are expressed in cash terms rather than real terms as the effects relate to the same period and are directly comparable.
§ Mr. DixonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what would be the total level of Government grant per head of adult population for 1992–93 for(a) Wandsworth, (b) Westminster and (c) each metropolitan district council in Tyne and Wear.
§ Mr. Portillo[holding answer 6 December 1991]: Under my right hon. Friend's proposals, the information for the total of revenue support grant and, where appropriate, area protection grant and inner London education grant per head of adult population is included in the list: 318W
£ Camden 1,066 Greenwich 1,085 Hackney 1,734 Hammersmith and Fulham 1,118 Islington 1,338 Kensington and Chelsea 906 Lambeth 1,275 Lewisham 1,120 Southwark 1,260 Tower Hamlets 1,803 Wandsworth 1,077 Westminster 1,293 Gateshead 530 Newcastle upon Tyne 525 North Tyneside 453 South Tyneside 555 Sunderland 535