HC Deb 31 March 1993 vol 222 c291W
Mr. Trend

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what changes he proposes to make to his Department's cash limits for 1992–93 and 1993–94.

Mr. Howard

I propose to make the following changes(i) The DOE/OES non-voted cash limit for 1992–93 will be increased by £48,083,000 from £109,016,000 to £157,099,000. The provision of additional supplementary credit approvals will enable local authorities to raise finance to fulfil their obligations to contribute part of the cost of certain roads built by the Commission for the New Towns in England. The increase, which is exceptionally high as it includes provision for the capitalisation of contributions from Buckinghamshire County Council in respect of earlier years, will be wholly offset by a counterbalancing Commission for the New Towns receipt (see (iii) (c) below). (ii) The DOE/LACAP non-voted cash limit for 1992–93 will be increased by £7,881,000 from £2,943,088,000 to £2,950,969,000. The provision of £6,231,000 additional supplementary credit approvals will enable Warrington BC, Milton Keynes BC and The Wrekin BC to purchase residual rented housing stock from the Commission for the New Towns in England; this increase is wholly offset by a counterbalancing receipt for the Commission. It also includes a transfer of £150,00 in respect of essential repairs to a number of properties included in the bulk transfer of housing to Warrington BC. It also includes £1,500,000 of supplementary credit approvals transferred from 1993–94 to take account of a revised forecast of the profile of supplementary credit approvals to offset some categories of commutation losses. (iii) The DOE/NT (New Towns) non-voted cash limit for 1992–93 will be increased by £137,186,000 from minus £293,636,000 to minus £156,450,000. This net increase is the result of the following individual changes:

  1. (a) an increase of £191,650,000, reflecting the effect on receipts of the present state of the property market;
  2. (b) a reduction of £150,000 resulting from the need to finance essential repairs to properties transferred to Warrington BC as described in (ii) above; and
  3. (c) reductions of £48,083,000 and £6,231,000 resulting from additional receipts from local authorities financed by the cash limit increases described in (i) and (ii) above respectively
(iv) The External Finance Limit for Letchworth Garden City Corporation in 1992–93 will be increased by £650,000 from minus £650,000 to zero. This reflects changes in the Corporation's financing profile as a result of the continuing depression in the property market. (v) The DOE/LACAP non-voted cash limit for 1993–94 will be reduced by £1,500,000 from £2,462,975,000 to £2,461,475,000, reflecting the revised forecast of the profile of supplementary credit approvals to offset some categories of commutation losses. These changes will either be offset or charged to the Reserve, and will not therefore add to the planning total of public expenditure.