To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his announcement on 25 April, Official Report, columns 101–2, if he will make it his policy to lay before Parliament reports about the granting of additional allocations as a means of relaxing the capital controls, citing individual authorities, individual projects and their values; and if he will make a statement.

Individual capital allocations have on many occasions hitherto been issued to individual local authorities for particular projects or purposes. Information about those likely to be of particular interest has been provided either in response to questions or through the Library. I am not persuaded of the need for more formal reporting arrangements.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what advice he plans to give local authorities on capital programmes in the light of his statements on 9 March, Official Report, columns 325–36, and 25 April, Official Report, columns 101–2; and when such advice will be available.

Copies of both statements and of the regulations made on 9 March and the new clauses added to the Local Government Finance Bill have already been circulated to all local authorities in England to which part VIII of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 applies. Representatives of local authorities have asked my Department to issue a circular containing guidance on the interpretation of the regulations and new clauses and amplifying the criteria which I proposed on 25 April, Official Report, columns 103–4. I will consider what advice can properly be given, after the current consultations have taken place.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his announcement about relaxations in the local authority capital control system, Official Report, 25 April, column 102, what percentage of the schemes made aware to him, after his announcement of 9 March, will be allowed to proceed by virtue of the relaxations; and what is his estimate of the value (a) of