Dear Stanley,
Thank you for your letter of 6 August.
It is of course for Salford to determine its overall expenditure needs and priorities. However we cannot go on spending money on the basis of a forecast growth in the economy that over the last five years was just not achieved. The present level of public expenditure is some £8,000 million higher than people are prepared to pay for in taxation and rates. Only when we build a strong economy can we be really efficient in reducing the problems of cities like Salford, and in achieving the standard of public services we all wish to see. The economy simply cannot sustain public expenditure at its projected level. We must try to contain it at its present level.
To give local authorities more latitude in spending their money we will be removing unnecessary controls and seeking a number of legislative changes. In education for example, we intend to ask Parliament to give greater flexibility over the statutory obligation on local authorities to provide school meals and to remove the restrictions on charging for school transport. As you know the transport legislation is very arbitrary and means that some families pay the entire costtthemselves, while others living within a hundred yards of them pay nothing. [end p1]
This and other changes will allow authorities to concentrate resources on the areas where in their view the need is greatest.
Of course it is never easy to make economies, and sometimes difficult decisions may have to be taken. You will be very much aware of that from your own Ministerial experience. But expenditure and standard of service are not always synonymous, and through close attention to efficiency and value for money a great deal can be achieved without reducing standards. Yours sincerely, Margaret Thatcher