Sections 31 to 33: Expenditure grant
51.This new wide-ranging power will enable any Minister to make a grant for any purpose, capital or revenue, to any local authority. It will also enable the National Assembly for Wales to make a grant to any local authority in Wales. Save for in Wales, Treasury consent will be needed in all cases to the making of the grants. The power should largely eliminate the need in future legislation for any further specific grant-making powers. It is designed to allow authorities more flexibility in the use of resources than some existing specific powers, which constrain their use. It is also expected to provide a more convenient means of delivering a number of grants currently made under existing powers. The new power will be used, for example, to make grants in connection with service improvements by local authorities which have entered into local Public Service Agreements with the Government.
52.Grants may be made under this power to a class or category of authority. For example, grants could be made to authorities by reference to performance categories as set out in an order made under section 99(4). The conditions applied to individual grants may be differentiated by reference to these categories or may be different for an individual authority.