HC Deb 05 November 1992 vol 213 cc370-1W
Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much his Department spent in total on transitional relief and the community charge reduction scheme; and what was the original estimate of the amount required.

Mr. Robin Squire

My Department has so far paid out £1,950 million in transitional relief and community charge reduction scheme grant. Further grant payments totalling about £500 million will be paid this and next year. Early estimates put the cost of the schemes at about £2,830 million.

Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will publish a table showing for each collecting local authority in England the latest figures available of uncollected community charge and the percentage of the total community charge that this figure represents;

(2) if he will publish a table showing for each collecting local authority in England the amount of uncollected domestic rates in 1989–90 and the percentage of the total rate that this figure represented.

Mr. Robin Squire

My Department does not collect figures for the amounts of domestic rates and of community charges outstanding. Figures for community charge arrears outstanding at 31 March 1991 were published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in "Revenue Collection Statistics 1990–91 Actuals", a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. Figures for uncollected domestic rates are not available, although the chartered institute has published gross arrears of domestic and non-domestic rates at 31 March 1990 in "Rate Collection Statistics 1989–90 Actuals", a copy of which is also available in the Library of the House.

Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing for each collecting local authority in England how much was bid by that authority for Government funds to cover the set-up costs of the council tax and how much his Department gave to each authority in 1992–93.

Mr. Robin Squire

Authorities were not asked to bid for funds to cover the costs of implementing the council tax. Independent consultants, CSL Ltd., were employed to advise on these costs. They estimated that the revenue costs of implementing the council tax would be £114.6 million. The Government agreed to pay 75 per cent. of these costs by way of a special grant of which £56.74 million will be paid to authorities this year, and a further £29.23 million will be paid in 1993–94 on receipt of audited claims. The allocation to billing authorities of this grant is given in Special Grant Report (No. 4) approved by the House in June this year, a copy of which is in the House of Commons Library. The other 25 per cent. of costs will be met through revenue support grant.

In addition, supplementary credit approvals to the value of £41.2 million are available to authorities in respect of capital expenditure they incur on implementing the council tax.

Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what items of local authority expenditure were included in the Government's calculations of council tax set-up costs.

Mr. Robin Squire

This Department employed independent consultants CSL Ltd to advise on the total cost of preparing for the introduction of the council tax by April 1993. The costs, both revenue and capital, taken into account by the consultants covered staffing, accommodation, computer hardware, computer software, stationery, publicity and training.