§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what plans he has to relax the current controls on local authorities re-investing their non-housing capital receipts. [14027]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe Local Government Finance (Supplementary Credit Approvals) Act 1997, which has just come into force, will enable Ministers to take account of most receipts set aside by local authorities for debt repayment in determining amounts of supplementary credit approvals. The measure will allow the additional resources we have made available under our housing capital receipts initiative to be distributed to local authorities taking account of historically generated housing capital receipts, as well as need. The Government's immediate priority is for a housing initiative to get extra resources into tackling the backlog of housing need. We have no plans at present for a similar initiative for other services.