§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what plans he has to extend transport supplementary grant bids to expenditure on transport packages; [27193]
(2) what progress he has made in implementing recommendation 42 of the Royal Commission on environmental pollution's 18th report on transport and the environment. [27194]
§ Mr. NorrisSection 88(3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 restricts the payment of transport supplementary grant in England to expenditure in connection with highways or the regulation of traffic. In order to provide greater flexibility for local authorities to switch resources between different types of expenditure, it was agreed with the local authority associations that works costing less than £2 million within transport package bids would be funded through supplementary credit approvals. The borrowing costs associated with the use of SCAs are reflected in the calculation of local authorities' entitlement to revenue support grant.
We are still considering whether any change to the existing legislative framework, as suggested by the royal commission, is needed.