§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what resources he will make available to authorities that have been or are to be reorganised on 1 April 1994, 1996 or 1997 for reorganisation costs incurred by them in 1995–96; and if he will make a statement. [3687]
§ Mr. CurryOn 27 July I invited authorities that have been, or are to be, reorganised on or before 1 April 1997 to submit estimates of the amount of expenditure that they expect to incur on transitional costs of reorganisation in 1995–96. On the basis,inter alia, of the information provided by the authorities, I have decided the maximum amounts that it would be appropriate to allocate towards such costs in 1995–96.I have given priority to authorities that are to be reorganised on 1 April 1996 and within that group, to the shadow authorities that are to become the new unitary authorities, and to the redundancy costs of authorities that are to be abolished.
The amounts are as follows:
732W
Maximum amounts: £000s rounded Authority 1995–96 Total 1994–95 and 1995–96 Isle of Wight Isle of Wight council 1,750 3,494 Cleveland Cleveland county council 2,500 — Hartlepool borough council 3,200 3,748 Langbaurgh on Tees borough council 2,550 2,637 Middlesbrough borough council 2,160 2,354 Stockton on Tees borough council 2,930 3,428 Avon Avon county council 2,500 — Bristol city council 3,000 — Woodspring district council 3,250 — In Bath and North East Somerset, of which: 3,000 — Bath and North East Somerset council 1,810 — Bath city council 600 — Wansdyke district council 590 — In South Gloucestershire, of which: 3,000 — South Gloucestershire council 1,800 — Kingswood borough council 650 — Northavon district council 550 — Humberside Humberside county council 2,500 — Hull city council 3,000 — In the East Riding of Yorkshire. of which: 3,200 — East Riding of Yorkshire council 1,200 — Beverley borough council 650 — Boothferry borough council 300 — East Yorkshire borough council 550 —
Maximum amounts: £000s rounded Authority 1995–96 Total 1994–95 and 1995–96 Holderness borough council 500 — In North Lincolnshire, of which: 2,900 — North Lincolnshire council 1,800 — Glanford borough council 550 — Scunthorpe borough council 550 — In North East Lincolnshire, of which: 2,950 — North East Lincolnshire DC 1,900 — Cleethorpes borough council 450 — Great Grimsby 600 — North Yorkshire North Yorkshire county council 1,500 — Ryedale district council 410 — Selby district council 510 — In York, of which: 3,000 — York district council 2,550 — York city council 450 — Total 49,310 52,824 In addition, £0.2 million has been set aside, for distribution by the Home Office, for the reorganisation costs of combined fire authorities. A reserve of £0.49 million has been retained to meet any unanticipated, exceptional, costs incurred by shadow authorities.
I have considered carefully the bids submitted by authorities that are to be, or might be, reorganised in 1997. The arrangements make it clear that these authorities would have to make an exceptional case and that priority would be given to supporting expenditures that had to be incurred in 1995–96 if reorganisation were to be implemented by the specified date, and that were of a scale that could not reasonably be found from within the authority's budget. In my view, none of the bids established a sufficiently exceptional case to justify an allocation in the current year. These authorities have, however, been invited to submit bids for 1996–97.