§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
By what amount has the public sector borrowing requirement increased because of the need to provide local authority loans to tenants who bought their council houses (or flats) in 1979–80 and 1980–81 and since.
§ Lord BellwinSales of local authority dwellings help to reduce the public sector borrowing requirement. Where the authority itself supplies the mortgage loan to a sitting tenant it receives the sale price over time. Where the sale is made with the help of private finance, the authority receives the value immediately. In both cases, up to 50 per cent. of the capital receipt may be used to augment the authority's capital expenditure allocation; the remainder serves to reduce the authority's borrowing requirement.
House adjourned at fourteen minutes past ten o'clock.