Standard Spending Assessments (London) (Hansard, 3 December 1992)

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the highest, lowest and next lowest standard spending assessment elements for inner London boroughs for(a) other services, (b) child social services and (c) education expressed for each relevant person.

§ Mr. Robin Squire
The information requested, in respect of the provisional standard spending assessments, is shown in the table below. The education SSA has been expressed in £s per head since this SSA covers services provided across the full age range.

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what standard spending assessments would be allocated to Greenwich if it was the same for each person as the assessment for(a) Wandsworth and (b) Lewisham.

§ Mr. Robin Squire
Combining the SSA per head for Wandsworth and for Lewisham with the latest resident population figure for Greenwich would produce SSA totals of £205 million and £206 million respectively. SSAs are intended to reflect the social characteristics of the area 291W concerned. Greenwich's SSA is different from that of Wandsworth and Lewisham because, inter alia, its social characteristics are different.

§ Mr. Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of the effects on the standard spending assessments for Greenwich of(a) population change and (b) the factors II (i) to (vi) in his Department's letter of 26 November to local authorities on local government finance (England).

§ Mr. Robin Squire
No such estimates have been made.

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the significant factors other than population affecting standard spending assessments and what effect each contributed to the difference between the standard spending assessments of Greenwich and Wandsworth.

§ Mr. Robin Squire
All the factors on which standard spending assessments are based are listed in the draft Local Government Finance Report (England) 1993–94 which is in the Library. These are very similar to those used for 1992–93. The SSA Handbook for 1992–93, which is in the Library, shows the contribution of the main indicators to each authority's SSA in £per adult. Similar calculations have not been carried out for provisional 1993–94 SSAs.