asked the Secretary of State for Transport if, in view of the underspending on road capital works by local authorities in 1982–83, he has made any recommendations to local authorities on the reclassification of spending on major structural maintenance as capital expenditure as now adopted for trunk roads.

I shall shortly be consulting the local authority associations on extending this reclassification to local roads.

I welcome my hon. Friend's statement. How far have discussions gone towards adopting the same system as is used in Wales, of restricting TSG to capital projects only to ensure that sufficient capital projects are completed?

Discussions are at present going on in the grants working party, and as that has not yet reached any conclusions it would be premature of me to go further into this.