§ 31. Mr. Cooperasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will state the figures for loans outstanding by local authorities in the United Kingdom for the years 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961.
§ Mr. RipponThe figures for Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Government and the answer is therefore confined to those for Scotland, which are the concern of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and for England and Wales. The following are the figures:
£ million Financial Year Loan debts of local authorities in England and Wales (a) Scotland (b) Great Britain 1956–57 4,615.0 637.7 5,252.7 1957–58 4,962.4 685.1 5,647.5 1958–59 5,294.1 736.7 6,030.8 1959–60 5,656.7 787.4 6,444.1 1960–61 (c) 5,750.3 807.1 6,557.4 (a) Source (except for 1960–61): "Local Government Financial Statistics, England and Wales"—Ministry of Housing and Local Government. (b) Source (except for 1960–61): "Local Financial Returns (Scotland)"—Scottish Home Department. (c) 1960–61: Figures are obtained from the Treasury survey of local government authority loan debt, and are not precisely comparable with those for previous years.