Cash Limits (Hansard, 31 January 1997)

§ Mr. Gummer

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the cash limit for class VI, vote 1—housing and construction, England—covering sections A, D to G and J to L of that vote, will be decreased by £7,172,000 from £331,468,000 to £324,296,000. An increase in the cash limit of £3,057,000 is offset by a decrease of £10,229,000. The increase consists of £557,000 to meet additional administration costs the corporation is expected to incur in preparing the loan portfolio for possible sale, funded from any receipt of the sale; a transfer of £2,000,000 from the non-voted Department of the Environment/new towns cash limit, and an offset of £500,000 from class VI, vote 8, Ordnance Survey. The decrease is a transfer from a number of programmes, principally £3,179,000 from gipsy site grant and £3,030,000 from the estates renewal challenge fund, to fund increases in Housing Corporation tax relief and supplementary management grants, which fall outside the cash limit.

The Department of the Environment/Housing Corporation non-voted cash limit will be increased by £2,000,000 from £1,035,868,000 to £1,037,868,000 in compensation for receipts which would normally have been recycled within the Housing Corporation and which may now be lost due to the proposed sale of the loans portfolio.

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The Department of the Environment/new towns non-voted cash limit will be decreased by £2,000,000 from -£108,000,000 to -£110,000,000. This decrease is due to the Commission for New Towns having accelerated disposals and generated additional receipts above those already taken up in the winter supplementary estimate. Additional receipts of £3,250,000 in gross terms were generated, of which the commission expects to use £1,250,000 to increase capital spending leaving a balance of £2,000,000 which will be transferred to class VI, vote 1—housing and construction, England—to meet pressure on Housing Corporation tax relief grant.

The cash limit for class VI, vote 2—regeneration and countryside and wildlife—will be increased by £30,389,000 from £1,464,779,000 to £1,495,168,000. The increase is mainly due to the need to repay £20,000,000 advanced from the Contingencies Fund, as announced on 23 January, Official Report, column 680, to enable English Partnerships to purchase the site at the Greenwich peninsula for the millennium exhibition, and an increase in provision for central Government grants and grants to local authorities in place of European Commission receipts. This extra provision will be met by a call on the reserve to meet the cost of acquiring the Greenwich site and take up of end-year flexibility entitlement for European regional development fund, old programmes and for the other environmental services block, as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 12 July 1996, Official Report columns 326–31. The balance will be made up of a transfer of £34,000 from the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry as further contributions towards the Manchester bomb fund, and a transfer from the ERDF non-voted cash limit.

The DOE/ERDF non-voted cash limit will be reduced £4,995,000 from £183,295,000 to £178,300,000. This reflects transfers of £4,518,000 to sections M and N on vote 2—regeneration and Countryside and Wildlife—and £477,000 to the Department of Transport.

The cash limit for class VI, vote 3—environmental protection and water—covering sections A to H of that vote, will be increased by £500,000 from £351,610,000 to £352,110,000. This change reflects increases in provision of £76,000 for water supply and sewerage grants in rural areas; and £424,000 for water supply and sewerage in assisted areas. The increase will be matched by a reduction in the cash limit for class VI, vote 4—local government and planning—of £500,000.

The cash limit for class VI, vote 4—local government and planning, England—covering sections A to F of that vote, will be reduced by £1,050,000 from £31,128,057,000 to £31,127,007,000. This reduction is the result of reductions in the payments made to the Valuation Office Agency in section A, valuation services, and reduction in the planning and minerals research programme, section D. The savings in section A will be used within vote 4 to allow an increase to the local government research programme in section C—local government research and surveys—and to enable the payment of a special grant from section H, other grants, to those authorities affected by the terrorist bombings in Docklands and central Manchester. Section H is outside the cash limit on the vote. The savings in section D will 390W be used to allow an increase in section E—civil defence and water and sewerage grants—of class VI, vote 3, environmental protection and water.

The DOE local government reorganisation non-voted cash limit will be reduced by £2,176,000 from £107,845,000 to £105,669,000 to offset the balance of the increase on section H of vote 4 for the payment of special grant and of emergency financial assistance under the Bellwin scheme.

The cash limit for class VI, vote 5, administration, will be increased by £5,781,000 from £463,809,000 to £469,590,000. This change reflects the expected shortfall in running cost related receipts due to the Building Research Establishment executive agency which will not be realised before it is privatised, drawdown of £600,000 running cost end year flexibility entitlement in respect of the Health and Safety Executive gross running cost limit to meet severance and other expenditure requirements, a transfer of £655,000 to the Health and Safety Commission grant in aid from the Office of Public Services, class XVII, vote 1, in respect of opportunity cost rent payments; a transfer of £40,000 from the Northern Ireland Office, class XV, vote 1, for the costs of a temporary appointment of an inspector to the Planning Appeals Commission Northern Ireland, an increase of £1,324,000 to cover the costs of the sale of the Building Research Establishment executive agency, an increase of £367,000 in respect of additional costs incurred arranging for the sale of the Housing Corporation loans portfolio. These increases are partly offset by net savings of; £545,000 by the Planning Inspectorate executive agency due to additional local plan inquiry receipts, and £510,000 operating costs by the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre executive agency.

As a result, the qualifying provision for the DOE gross running cost limit will increase by £407,000 from £229,063,000 to £229,470,000. The HSE gross running cost limit will increase by £703,000 from £157,308,000 to £158,011,000. The BRE net running cost control limit has increased from nil to £3,850,000.

All the increases will be offset either by, savings or transfers or will be charged to the reserve and will not, therefore, add to the planned total of public expenditure.