HC Deb 28 February 1992 vol 204 cc634-5W
Mr. Cousins

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the statutory provisions relating to the levying by local authorities of a poll tax non-payment surcharge; and what is the total national cost of the non-payment surcharges levied by local authorities in England and Wales for 1991–92.

Mr. Key

To comply with section 32 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, an authority must make adequate allowance for estimated non-collection when setting its charges.

Before the £140 general reduction, local authorities had made provision for £600 million for non-collection in 1991–92 when setting their charges.

Mr. Squire

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the total of local government(a)revenue and (b)capital expenditure by local government within each region, showing Greater London separately, for each year from 1978–79 to 1991–92 (estimated).

Mr. Key

The available information is as follows:

Capital expenditure4
£ million
Region 1985–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 51990–91 61991–92
Greater London 1,362 1,433 1,592 2,593 1,431 1,369
South East (excluding Greater London) 1,147 1,265 1,648 2,103 1,450 1,457
South West 429 448 543 744 578 608
East Anglia 196 205 263 364 263 275
West Midlands 585 603 705 964 703 693
East Midlands 401 415 456 586 448 491
North West 801 846 856 1,098 893 910
Yorkshire and Humberside 514 591 695 872 644 677
North 411 417 447 497 379 410
Total 5,846 6,224 7,206 9,822 6,788 6,891
1 Total expenditure figures are given for 1981–82 to 1989–90. Net revenue expenditure both are net of specific and supplementary grants, direct comparisons cannot be made as they derive from two different systems.
2 Revised estimate.
3 Budget.
4 1986–87 includes amounts charged direct to revenue or of her funds and not capitalised, and 1991–92 are not strictly comparable to earlier years owing to the introduction of Polytechnics were transferred out of local government from 1 April 1989.
5 Provisional outturn.
6 Local authority forecast.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much money was paid to local authorities to cover the cost of the £140 reduction for poll tax bills.

Mr. Portillo

The sum of £4.374 billion of grant is being paid in 1991–92 under the Community Charges (General Reduction) Act 1991. The sum of £4.346 billion of this had already been paid in respect of charge income forgone, and represents 90 per cent. of the amount due, based on local authorities' own initial estimates of charge income to be collected for the year. Further payments are to be made, with effect from 1992–93, to bring the total amount paid into line with the total income forgone on charges actually collected for the year. In addition, I estimate the £28 million will have been paid by the end of the financial year to reimburse authorities for rebilling and other administrative costs directly resulting from the Act.