§ Mr. StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will announce the external financing limits which will apply to the Scottish water and sewerage authorities in 1997–98, and the following two years. [9466]
§ Mr. KynochIndicative external financing limits for the three water authorities, after reductions to take account of commutation of debt, were set last year at £163 million for 1997–98 and £157 million for 199899. In the light of the recently completed expenditure round the EFL for 1997–98 will remain at £163 million, the indicative EFL for 1998–99 will increase to £187 million and that for 1999–00 will be £223 million.
The allocation of EFLs to each authority in 1997–88 will be: East authority £52 million, North authority £49 million, and West authority £62 million. Indicative allocations for the later years will be given to the authorities later.