§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what consideration he will be giving in the review of the standard spending assessment system to developing an improved system for distributing Government grant or for controlling local authority expenditure.
§ Mr. BaldryThe review of standard spending assessments, which my right hon. Friend has discussed with the local authority associations, is now substantially complete. In the light of that review my right hon. Friend is now formulating his proposals for 1994–95 SSAs, which 103W he intends, as for previous years, should be a fair assessment, on the basis of the information and evidence available to him, of the appropriate amount of revenue expenditure for an authority to incur to provide a standard level of service.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to relate average grant payments and standard spending assessment levels to the relative status of local authorities for the purpose of receiving EC funding.
§ Mr. BaldryNone.
§ Mr. BettsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the effect of the area cost adjustment on(a) grants to local authorities in different parts of the country and (b) local authority pay levels.
§ Mr. BaldryThe area cost adjustment aims to ensure that standard spending assessments reflect regional differences in the cost of providing a standard level of service. Revenue support grant is distributed so that, if all local authorities were to spend at the level of their SSA, broadly the same level of council tax could be set in all areas for dwellings in the same valuation band. The area cost adjustment is not based on actual local authority pay levels and does not, therefore, provide any incentive for an authority to increase its pay.