HC Deb 31 March 1998 vol 309 cc499-500W
Mr. Eric Clarke

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what proposals he has to change his Department's cash limits for 1997–98. [37357]

Mr. Prescott

My Department's non-voted and voted cash limits will change as follows.

  1. (i) the DETR/NT (New Towns) non-voted cash limit will be reduced by £2,278,000 from minus £110,000,000 to minus £112,278,000. This reduction reflects a technical transfer to the DETR/OES (Other Environmental Services) non-voted cash limit which will consequently be increased by £2,278,000 from £20,792,000 to £23,070,000 to provide for Supplementary Credit Approvals (SCAs) to local authorities to cover their capital contributions to the Commission for the New Towns under road cost sharing arrangements;
    2. 500
  2. (ii) 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 £1,250,000 from £30,987,634,000 to £30,986,384,000. This decrease is the result of reductions in the expenses of Valuation Tribunals in Section A (Valuation services); and reduced expenditure on publicity relating to planning programmes, on the EC Spatial Planning Initiative and on the planning and minerals research programme in Section D. This decrease will be used to offset an increase of the same amount from £157,000,000 to £158,250,000 on the DETR/LGR (Local government reorganisation) non-voted cash limit to meet the greater than forecast demand for Transitional Costs of Reorganisation Supplementary Credit Approvals (SCAs);
  3. (iii) the cash limit for Class VI, Vote 1 (Housing and construction, England) will be reduced by £2,500,000 from £542,186,000 to £539,686,000 reflecting a reduction in provision for current expenditure by the Rent Officer Service and on the Rough Sleepers' Initiative. Of this, £1,000,000 will be used to offset an increase in the non-voted cash limit DETR/HC from £719,907,000 to £720,907,000 to provide for capital expenditure on the Rough Sleepers' Initiative; and
  4. (iv) the cash limit for Class V, Vote 2 (Department of Transport: administration and transport services) will be reduced by £3,400,000 from £161,701,000 to £158,301,000 arising from reduced expenditure on aviation services and freight grants. The cash limit for Class V, Vote 7 (Passenger rail services) will be reduced by £4,600,000 from £1,444,293,000 to £1,439,693,000 reflecting reduced expenditure on consultants and a reduction in the payments to the train companies as a result of their worse than expected performance. These reductions, totalling £8,000,000, will be used to provide a Public Expenditure offset on Class V, Vote 3 (Transport Industries) to cover a shortfall in Trans European Network receipts.