Local Government Finance (Hansard, 21 January 1991)

§ Mr. Redmond
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many appeals have been lodged to date against the uniform business rate in the Doncaster area.

§ Mr. Key
The Doncaster valuation officer had received by 31 December 1990, 4,490 proposals to alter the 1990 rating list.

§ Mr. Bowis
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what additional rate support grant Lambeth borough council received in 1985–86 by way of disregards in addition to those agreed before 1 April 1985; and how much of any additional grant related to the refusal by the council to set a rate in the first three months of the 1985–86 financial year.

§ Mr. Key
The categories of expenditure which were disregarded for the purpose of calculating grant abatement for 1985–86 are set out in annex VII to the "Rate Support Grant Supplementary Report (England) (No. 4) 1985–86" (HC11) laid before the House on 19 December 1988. All these categories were determined after 1 April 1985. None is related to a delay in setting a rate. The aggregate of the amounts of disregards for Lambeth was £395,000. The effects on rate support grant cannot now be estimated without disproportionate costs.

§ Mr. Bowis
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox) on 14 January,Official Report, column 446, if he will give the reasons for the level of revenue support grant and other items of external finance for the London borough of Wandsworth per adult as against the inner London average.

§ Mr. Key
Under the settlement for 1991–92 announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 17 January, Wandsworth will receive £1,192 per adult in external support compared with an inner London average of £1,397. This is made up of £711 per head in revenue support grant compared with the average for inner London boroughs of £940 reflecting through the standard spending assessments Wandsworth's social, demographic and geographical characteristics; payments from the non-domestic rate pool at the national rate of £349 per adult; inner London education grant at £40 per adult—the average for inner London—to support education expenditure on responsibilities inherited from ILEA; and £91 per adult in area protection grant—to protect charge payers from undue burdens arising from the change in the system of local government finance—which is £23 above the inner London average.