HC Deb 11 February 1997 vol 290 cc95-6W
Mr. Spearing

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, in respect of the assumed level and costs of capital expenditure referred to in paragraphs 4.59 to 4.61 of the "Local Government Finance Report (Surplus) 1997–98", HC 203 of 1996–97, he will state the mathematical basis used in respect of the assumed amounts referred to in each paragraph. [14591]

Sir Paul Beresford

The basis for calculating assumed outstanding debt at 1 April 1990 was set out in appendix 1 to annex VII of "Standard Spending Assessments: Background and Underlying Methodology", published by the Department of the Environment in 1990. A copy of this document was made available in the Library.

A description of the basic and supplementary credit approval data used in calculating standard spending assessments is given on pages 64 and 65 of "The Local Government Finance Report (England) 1997–98" (HC203). Pages 63 and 64 of the report describe how credit approval information for years prior to 1997–98 has been used to derive the estimate of assumed outstanding debt at 1 April 1997. Further information is given in "Standard Spending Assessments: Specification of Indicators for 1997–98", a copy of which is in the Library.

Councils in non-metropolitan areas. A similar index is used to allocate the other social services sub-block of the personal social services standard spending assessment.

Mr. Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the impact of the social index on the allocation of funding to(a) Harrow, (b) Bournemouth, (c) Richmond and (d) Merseyside. [14504]

Sir Paul Beresford

The social index is one of the indicators used in two elements of the standard spending assessments: other personal social services; and other services. The amounts allocated by each of the components of these formulae are given in the table.

The formula for calculating the assumed cost of financing capital expenditure is set out in paragraph 4.64 of "The Local Government Finance Report (England) 1997–98". The interest rate used in the calculation is defined on page 64 of the report.

Additional information on the calculation of the SSA element for capital financing, including a sample calculation, was provided in chapter 8 of "Standard Spending Assessments: Guide to Methodology 1996–97", published by the Department of the Environment in 1996. A copy of this document is in the Library.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the link between decreasing population and relative local economic decline; and what account is taken of that link in the standard spending assessment forumla. [14506]

Sir Paul Beresford

I have not made any recent assessment of the link between decreasing population and relative local economic decline. There is no explicit indicator of such an effect in the standard spending assessment formulae. However, the formulae include the population of the local authority and indicators of economic deprivation, which might reflect any such an effect.