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Dept of the Environment

Answer

Ms Armstrong: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will place in the Library in machine-readable form a table showing for each authority for each year from 1979-80 to 1996-97 the amount that each authority was deemed to need to spend in cash and in real terms for the purposes of distributing rate support grant; to what extent the figures are comparable, taking account of (a) changes in functions of local authorities, (b) abolition of the Greater London council, the Inner London education authority and metropolitan counties, (c) the local government review and (d) changed arrangements for (i) the assessment of needs, (ii) for the payment of the needs element of the rate support grant and (iii) precepting arrangements; if he will indicate for each authority on a comparable basis of ranking the assessed needs in each year on the basis (1) the percentage of total local government spending and (2) the amount assessed needs per head of population; and if he will make a statement about the needs of (A) Liverpool and (B) Westminster over the period. [40157] Sir Paul Beresford: Information on the amount which each local authority was deemed to need to spend for the purposes of distributing rate support grant and revenue support grant has been placed in the Library as printed tables and in machine readable form. The data consist of damped needs assessment for 1979-80 and 1980-81, grant-related expenditure assessments for 1981-82 to 1989-90, and standard spending assessments for 1990-91 to 1996-97. Information has been provided in cash terms, in real terms, as an amount per head and as a percentage of the total needs assessment for all English authorities. The figures in real terms are based on the gross domestic product deflator. The information includes, for 1992-93 and later years, figures recalculated so as to be comparable to those for the year immediately following. These adjusted figures take account of changes in function and geographical responsibility, but not changes in data, methodology, or the national totals. Adjusted figures are not available for earlier years. The damped needs assessments of 1979-80 for Liverpool and Westminster included allowance for the needs of the authorities which precepted on the two cities. In 1996-97, the needs of precepting authorities are calculated separately. For comparability, therefore, the 1996-97 figures are the total standard spending assessments per head of both the cities and the authorities which precept on them. On this basis, the damped needs assessment for Liverpool in 1979-80 was £327 per head, some 33 per cent. below that for Westminster. In 1996-97, standard spending assessments for the Liverpool area were £1,053 per head, some 25 per cent. below those for the Westminster area. Thus the Liverpool area now has standard spending assessments £111 per head greater than if it had continued to have an assessment 33 per cent. below Westminster's, as it did in 1979-80.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

40157; 282 c806-7W;282 c804-5W

Session

1995-96

Subjects

Liverpool City Council Rate support grants Westminster City Council Revenue support grant Standard spending assessments

Contains statistics

Yes