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Local Government Finance

Volume 921: debated on Thursday 2 December 1976

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asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the best estimate available to him of the likely total balance or deficit in local authority accounts at the close of the financial year.

A reliable figure of the accrued balances on the rate fund accounts for Scottish local authorities cannot be provided until I have received from the local authorities concerned the outstanding abtracts of account for 1974–75, of which only some 262 have been submitted out of 640. Accrued deficits at 31st March 1976 are, however, estimated approximately to total about £18 million. I am not in a position to make a reliable estimate of the extent to which this figure may have altered by the end of the current year.