asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the cost of transferring to the London boroughs the functions of the Greater London Council on its abolition and what are their annual running costs in respect of these functions.

It was estimated in 1987 that over 6,000 posts had been saved immediately following abolition of the GLC and the metropolitan councils. The projected long-term annual savings were of the order of some £100 million per annum resulting from staff reductions.It is not practicable to produce estimates of the current annual cost of providing these functions because of the difficulty of disaggregating data provided by the successor authorities. But in the 10 years since the GLC was abolished the savings will have been substantial.