To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the reasons underlying the changes in the grant settlement awarded to Tewkesbury Borough Council for (a) 1996–97, (b) 1997–98 and (c) 1998–99 and the standard spending assessment for the same years. [31399]

The change in an authority's standard spending assessment can be broken down into the effects of changes in the total amount of money distributed nationally, changes in the underlying data (for example, resident population) and changes in the method of distribution. Estimates of these changes are shown for Tewkesbury:

Per cent.
		caused by changes in
	Total	National totals	Data	Method of Distribution
(a) 1996–97	-2.9	-1.6	+3.6	1-5.0
(b) 1997–98	-1.9	-1.7	-0.1	-0.1
(c) 1998–99	-5.1	+0.8	+0.6	2-6.5
1 Introduction of new rent allowance element and changes in the concurrent service adjustment between shire district councils and shire county councils.
2 Changes in composition of the indices in the All Other Services Block and changes in the treatment of debt.

The changes in the total of Revenue Support Grant and redistributed National Non-Domestic Rates broadly reflect the reduction in SSA for 1996–97 and 1997–98. The reduction in the total of Revenue Support Grant and redistributed National Non-Domestic Rates in 1998–99 exceeds the reduction in SSA. This reflects a shift in grant from shire districts to shire counties following changes in the SSA system in 1998–99, and a shift in the cost of local authority services from central government to council tax payers.The amount of Revenue Support Grant and redistributed National Non-Domestic Rates for Tewkesbury in each year is such that if all local authorities were to spend at SSA then taxpayers in a given council tax band in Tewkesbury could face broadly the same council tax as council tax payers in the same band in other parts of England.