Shropshire (Structural Change) Order 2008

I had one or two questions on finance that I was going to raise in the opening speech, but I decided not to in the interests of brevity. I am slightly less optimistic than the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith. My worry is not about what happens with the savings but about what happens if the savings are not as high as we think they will be. I do not think that need necessarily be down to bad planning or anything of that nature. It is simply that when estimating how much is likely to be saved it is very difficult to be accurate. All sorts of things might occur. What bothers me is what will happen to local authorities if the costs, through no fault of their own, begin to escalate beyond those that they expected. Would expenditure on transitional arrangements be counted as part of the overall expenditure and therefore be capped, or would it be treated separately? I have absolute confidence that in the long run there will be savings, but the transition bothers me. My fear is that if in the short term the costs are high and authorities are capped, we will have restructured at the cost of public services.