§ Lord Sefton of Garstonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which metropolitan district received the highest rate support grant and which comparable metropolitan district received the lowest for 1995–96; what were the amounts; and how the difference was determined.
§ The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (Viscount Ullswater)The metropolitan district council which receives the greatest amount of revenue support grant in 1995–96 is the City of Birmingham (£531.204 million). The metropolitan borough of Bury receives the smallest amount of revenue support grant among the metropolitan district councils (£51.042 million).
The size of the authority accounts for a substantial part of the difference in these sums of revenue support grant: the resident population of Birmingham is 1,020,941 and the resident population of Bury is 181,821. Part of the difference is also due to differing numbers of clients for the main local authority services (eg. numbers of school pupils and numbers of the elderly). The remaining difference is largely due to differing social and economic circumstances.
The method for distributing Revenue Support Grant is described in the Local Government Finance Report (England) 1995–96 and, in greater detail, in the publication Standard Spending Assessment Handbook 1995–96, which has been placed in the Library.