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SY gains from TSG

5th January 1980, Page 17
5th January 1980
Page 17
Page 17, 5th January 1980 — SY gains from TSG
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

PUBLIC TRANSPORT revenue support and highway maintenance are the priorities in this year's allocation of £350m Transport Supplementary Grant which has been announced by Transport Minister Norman Fowler.

Among the metropolitan counties, Tyne and Wear has had its allocation cut, but South Yorkshire, which was penalised by Labour Transport Minister William Rodgers for its cheap fares policy, has had its share increased.

Tyne and Wear, which had expected £17m in TSG for 1980/81, has had its 1979/80 £45.3m share cut to £14.2m.

Transport committee chairman Councillor Jim Cousins has warned that this could lead to a 20 per cent increase in bus fares, or to additional support being borne by ratepayers.

But South Yorkshire should be happier with its share, up from £4.6m to £11.8m. Public transport support of £9.8m has been approved for TSG contribution, while highway maintenance expenditure of £15.7m has been agreed.

Greater London, which has had £48.3m public transport support and £71.8m highway expenditure approved, gets £120.2m TSG, against last year's £86.3m.

The shire counties get £108m, with the largest amount going to Lancashire (£7.5m), and Oxfordshire getting only £0.1m last year, Lancashire got £7.4m, and Oxfordshire £0.1m.

The Welsh counties get £31.12m, with South Glamorgan taking a lion's share of £7.2m, and Clwyd coming at the bottom of the table with £3m.

Welsh Secretary Nicholas Edwards says that he has broadly accepted the counties' perceptions of their own needs for bus service revenue support.

Transport Minister Norman Fowler issued a warning to authorities when he an nounced the allocation, saying: "Whilst I accept that counties' final spending patterns could be different fom the pattern of their accepted expenditure, I would expect any additional spending to be counterbalanced by a reduction elsewhere in their budgets, in order to avoid jeopardising the Government's overall public expenditure objectives."

There is no TSG for Scotland, which depends entirely on rate support grant for local authority assistance.


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