Departmental Public Expenditure – PWA (2)

Iain Wright MP: What is the breakdown by (a) budget area and (b) local authority area of the £220 million reduction in expenditure to be made from his Department?
Grant Shapps MP: The Government remain strongly committed to reducing the United Kingdom's budget deficit and the announcement by the Chief Secretary on the 5 July confirmed that the Department has agreed to a £220 million reduction in its claim for End Year Flexibility this year. We have therefore been able to confirm £390 million of End Year Flexibility this year, alongside the £170 million announced on 24 May, for the provision of new social housing and other housing priorities. This guarantee of £560 million of funding will enable the HCA to meet all existing contractual commitments and will be able to progress some of those programmes that have been paused while the funding position was under review. The HCA's regional offices will be assessing which other schemes can be progressed. Moreover, given public sector borrowing in 2010-11 was forecast to hit £167 billion, such levels of spending on "borrowed money" was unsustainable-contributing to the forecast £1.4 trillion of public debt by 2014.