§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how the best value regime will apply to the component parts of the GLA. [71105]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe Local Government Bill applies the best value regime to both the Greater London Authority, so far as it exercises its functions through the Mayor, and the four functional bodies which will deliver the main London-wide services (Transport for London, the London Development Agency, the Metropolitan Police Authority, and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority).
The Bill also allows for the Secretary of State to provide, by Order, for the GLA to be a best value authority in relation to specified functions of the Authority which it does not exercise through the Mayor, and specified functions which are not functions of the Authority but are functions of another best value authority.
The Secretary of State may also specify, by Order, modifications to the way in which best value would apply to these functions. Any such Orders would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure in Parliament.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the proportion of GLA expenditure which will be(a) self-financed and (b) met by grants. [71107]
606W
§ Mr. RaynsfordIn the White Paper "A Mayor and Assembly for London" published on 25 March 1998, we estimated that the annual costs of the Mayor, Assembly, their support staff and some central services would be about £20 million a year. We made it clear that the Government had decided to meet most of the cost themselves through grant and that London council tax payers would contribute about three pence a week on a Band D council tax bill.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish an indicative budget for the GLA setting out(a) the component budgets, (b) any central support costs and (c) income from (i) grants, (ii) council tax and (iii) charges. [71106]
§ Mr. RaynsfordI will publish the GLA's budget for 2000–01, including the information requested, following the local government finance settlement in February 2000. Publication of later years budgets will be a matter for the Mayor.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what consultations and on what timetable his Department is undertaking to inform the preparation of the GLA's first budget. [71108]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe GLA will not exist at the start of the financial year 2000–01, so their budget for that year will be set by the Secretary of State. Detailed transitional arrangements for the GLA's first year budget have yet to be settled. My Department will be consulting interested parties widely over the coming months, to enable the GLA's budget for 2000–01 to be prepared in provisional form by the end of November 1999 and finalised by the end of February 2000, in line with the timetable for local government finance generally.