§ Ms HarmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much local authorities have already raised from sales of capital assets since the announcement in the 1992 autumn statement that they would be permitted to spend all of their receipts up to the end of December; how much he now estimates will be raised in total by the end of December; how much of these receipts he estimates has already been spent by local authorities; and how much of these receipts will be spent by the end of the financial year 1993–94 and during 1994–95.
§ Mr. BaldryThe temporary relaxation in the capital receipts rules announced in the 1992 autumn statement allows local authorities to spend 100 per cent. of virtually all the receipts they receive during the period 13 November 1992 to 31 December 1993. Recent information provided by local authorities in England indicates that a total of around £1.3 billion of usable receipts were obtained during the period 13 November 1992 to 31 July 1993. This information also suggests that local authorities currently expect to obtain around £2.3 billion of usable receipts in total during the whole period of the relaxation, of which some £1.3 billion is estimated to arise as a result of the relaxation. On the basis of their latest returns, local authorities plan to finance £1.8 billion of their capital expenditure in 1993–94 from usable capital receipts received in that year or brought forward from earlier years. No equivalent information is yet available for 1994–95.