§ Mr. GallieTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will announce the provision that he has made in his public expenditure plans for Government-supported expenditure and aggregate external finance in 1997–98 and 1998–99. [7692]
§ Mr. Michael ForsythMy plans for Government-supported expenditure and aggregate external finance for 1997–98 and 1998–99 and the actual figures for 1996–97 which I announced on Budget day are shown in the table. The plans for 1997–98 and 1998–99 will, in the normal way, be subject to review in future public expenditure surveys.
£ million 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 GSE 6,200.7 6,231 6,245 AEF 5,400.9 5,337 5,303 COMMUNITY CARE
The above amounts of GSE and AEF are inclusive of the following sums which are being transferred to local authorities in respect of their care in the community and the independent living fund responsibilities.
£ million 1996–97 211.6 1997–98 245.0 1998–99 269.5 LOCAL GOVERNMENT REORGANISATION
My plans for GSE and AEF for the two forward years assume that the new councils will incur local government reorganisation related costs of £20 million in 1997–98, including £3 million for redundancy costs, and no such costs in 1998–99.
My right hon. Friend announced 12 months ago that, in his 1994 public expenditure plans, he had assumed that savings of £40 million per annum would be achieved from the new local government structure from 1997–98. I think that annual savings of at least that order are possible provided the new councils streamline their management and committee structures and seek the most effective means of delivering services.
Overall, therefore, my plans assume reorganisation-related savings of £20 million (net) in 1997–98 and £40 million in 1998–99.