Cash Limits (Hansard, 6 February 1992)

§ Mr. Heseltine

Yes. Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the following changes will be made:

(i) The cash limit for class VIII, vote 2 (miscellaneous housing administration and grants) will be increased by £1,700,000 from £195,907,000 to £197,607,000. The increase reflects a transfer a £1,700,000 from the non-voted provision for housing action trusts for borrowing from the national loans funds to grant-in-aid which is voted in estimates. In additions, the running costs provision for rent assessment panels will he increased by £43,000 to £1,904,000 to support the provision of information technology to the panels. This increase in running costs provision will be met from equivalent savings within the running costs provision on class VIII, vote 8, so that the Department's running costs limit remains unaffected by this change;
(ii) The DOE/HC non-voted cash limit will be increased by £950,000 from £1,520,925,000 to £1,521,875,000. This increase results from full take up of entitlement of £950,000 under the end year flexibility scheme for capital projects concerned with schemes for the homeless;
(iii) The DOE/UA non-voted cash limit will be increased by £6,617,000 from £883,814,000 to £890,431,000. This includes increased grant-in-aid of £8,850,000 to the Black Country development corporation for the black country spine road. This increase will be offset by a corresponding reduction in the Department of Transport's cash limit for class VII, vote 1 (national roads, England). In addition, £13,280,000 is required for various projects for other development corporations, to increase resources for local authority sector derelict land grant, and to make payments of urban programme grant and city action team grant where works have progressed faster than anticipated. The costs will be met, in part, from offsetting savings of £12,000,000 on the city grant programme and other savings totalling £3,513,000 from non local authority derelict land grant, urban development grant and inner cities research.
(iv) The cash limit for class VIII, vote 5 (central environmental services, etx) will be reduced by £9,000,000 from £317,840,000 to £308,840,000. The decrease reflects reduced grant-in-aid requirements by the National Rivers Authority.
(v) The cash limit for class VIII, vote 6, (royal palaces, royal parks, historic buildings, etc) will be increased by £71,000 from £176,484,000 to £176,555,000. The increase of £71,000 is required to cover the cost of new charges by the Civil Service Commission for services provided to the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, and by the Treasury solicitors for services provided to the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission. These increases are offset by equivalent transfers of provision from class VIII, vote 8 (Department of the Environment: administration). In addition, the running costs provision for royal parks will be 233 increased by £600,000 mainly to meet the redundancy and consultancy costs associated with contracting out gardening services. This increase in provision for royal parks will be met from savings within the vote, but the running cost provision on class VIII, vote 8 will be reduced by an equivalent amount so the Department's running cost limit remains unaffected by this change;
(vi) The cash limit for class VIII, vote 8 (Department of the Environment: administration) will be increased by £201,000 from £188,417,000 to £188,618,000. This increase includes a transfer of £200,000 from class VIII, vote 3 (urban aid and derelict land reclamation, England) for costs associated with Manchester's bid for Olympics in the year 2000, and a transfer of £71,000 to class VIII, vote 6 (royal palaces, royal parks, historic buildings, etc) as outlined above. The Department's running cost limit will be reduced by £4,541,000 from £190,061,000 to £185,520,000. The decrease includes reallocation of resources from running costs to non-running costs within this vote, and the equivalent offset to the running cost increases for rent assessment panels on class VIII, vote 2 and for royal parks on class VIII, vote 6, as outlined above;
(vii) The cash limit for class VIII, vote 9 (revenue support grant, payment of non-domestic rates, valuation office rating and valuation services, etc., England) will be decreased by £52,686,000 from £22,759,344,000 to £22,706,658,000. The decrease reflects lower costs in payments to the valuation office, for implementation work on the council tax: and
(viii) The DOE/LACAP non-voted cash limit will be increased by £2,710,000 from £3,016,492,000 to £3,019,202,000. This represents an increase of £3,000,000 for projects to help the homeless, partly offset by a decrease of £290,000 due to lower than expected take up of estate action grant.

These increases will be charged to the reserve and not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.