§ Mr. Bill WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he intends to take capping action against any Scottish local authority in the current year.
§ Mr. LangI have now analysed the 1992–93 budget estimates of all Scottish local authorities. All authorities have budgeted at or below the expenditure limits implied by the provisional capping principles which I announced on 14 October 1991. In these circumstances, I do not propose to take capping action against any Scottish local authority this year.
Overall, authorities plan to increase their expenditure in 1992–93—as compared with the budget estimates for 1991–92—by 5.6 per cent. and the excess of budgets over grant-aided expenditure (GAE) has been reduced from 2.1 per cent. in 1991–92 to 1.2 per cent. this year. This outcome demonstrates the effectiveness of my strengthened capping powers in constraining the growth in local authority expenditure and it is my intention to issue later this year provisional capping principles for 1993–94.