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Mr. Amess
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what account he took of Basildon district council's debt burden in deciding to rate-cap that authority for 1988–89.
Mr. Howard
As required by statute, my right hon. Friend selected Basildon district council for rate limitation for 1988–89 by reference to the best information available to him about its likely total expenditure for 1987–88, which reflected among other things the costs falling that year on Basildon's ratepayers as a result of the council's debt.