§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list by shire county the amounts352W of county fund revenue reserves each is budgeting to hold at the end of 1995–96 excluding estimated balances held by schools under local management of schools; and what percentage this represents of the budget requirements for 1995–96. [26855]
§ Mr. Robert B. Jones[holding answer 6 June 1995]: The following estimates of the level of reserves at 31 March 1996, excluding schools balances, are calculated from authorities' planned use of reserves in their budgets for 1995–96 as reported on their revenue account return. These reserves include amounts, which may be significant in some cases, which may be earmarked for specific purposes and thus not be available to the council for general use. Further information, including estimates of the split between earmarked and unallocated reserves at the beginning of 1995–96, is currently being collected by my Department via an ad-hoc survey of revenue reserves, but the following figures do not incorporate any amendments which may be made as a result of that survey.
Non-LMS budgeted level of reserves at 31 March 1996 Reserves1£000s Percentage of budget requirement2 Avon 6,367 1.1 Bedfordshire 6,303 1.8 Berkshire 8,999 2.0 Buckinghamshire 26,013 6.6 Cambridgeshire 29,000 7.6 Cheshire 21,574 3.7 Cleveland 3,940 1.0 Cornwall 13,573 4.8 Cumbria 9,683 3.2 Derbyshire 0 0.0 Devon 9,150 1.5 Dorset 8,112 2.3 Durham 7,141 2.0 East Sussex 15,521 3.7 Essex 33,750 3.7 Gloucestershire 979 0.3 Hampshire 15,930 1.8 Hereford and Worcester 5,571 1.5 Hertfordshire 27,187 4.5 Humberside 4,260 0.8 Isle of Wight U. A. 4,724 5.1 Kent 15,200 1.6 Lancashire 9,223 1.0 Leicestershire 7,660 1.4 Lincolnshire 15,947 4.6 Norfolk 6,945 1.6 Northamptonshire 11,226 3.2 Northumberland 4,325 2.2 North Yorkshire 9,777 2.5 Nottinghamshire 3,803 0.6 Oxfordshire 6,521 2.1 Shropshire 3,479 1.4 Somerset 20,620 7.8 Staffordshire 36,310 6.2 Suffolk 2,631 0.7 Surrey 46,217 8.5 Warwickshire 12,479 4.6 West Sussex 3,322 0.8 Wiltshire 4,117 1.3 1 Revenue Account (RA96) return. Level of reserves at 31 March 1996 = Estimated general fund reserves at beginning of financial year 1995–96 (excluding schools) + Appropriations to/from financial reserves in respect of the repayment of internal charges for the use of assets + Other appropriations to/from financial reserves. 2 Column 1 as a percentage of budget requirement, taken from the Revenue Account (RA96) return.