Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
I shall be dealing with my hon. Friend's speech in due course.
The hon. Member for Small Heath talked about an enormous cut-back in the rate support grant and quoted a figure of £182 million. There is still under discussion the figure by which relevant expenditure may be reduced as a result of the cuts proposed, but it is certainly not £182 million. It is not much more than half that figure, I would have thought. The very circumstances in which these cuts are demanded give all the more reason for the expenditure of local authority money on just the sort of social subjects which both the hon. Member for Small Heath and the hon. Member for Manchester, Ardwick (Mr. Kaufman) mentioned. I have endeavoured to lay down guidelines.