§ Mr. ColvinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the 10 local authorities with the highest amount of debt. [7224]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe information requested is as follows. It should be noted that authorities with high levels of debt are generally those which have undertaken capital investment and that longer term borrowing to finance capital expenditure is regulated by Government through the issue of credit approvals.
499W
Authority Outstanding debt at 31 March 1996 £ million Birmingham 1,218 Manchester 1,206 Lambeth 929 Islington 868 Liverpool 802 Sheffield 802 Southwark 788 Hackney 762 Leeds 697 Tower Hamlets 658 Note:
The outstanding debt figures include both long term and short term borrowing. Local authorities provide data on outstanding amounts for temporary debt and investments in the Department's regular monthly and quarterly borrowing and lending inquiries, but information on longer term debt is collected as flows i.e. transactions during the relevant period. The Department conducted special surveys in 1991, 1993 and 1994 seeking information on the amount of outstanding longer term debt and investment. The figure for 1996 has been calculated from information supplied to the Department in the 1994 survey and the regular monthly and quarterly surveys, and may include estimated values.
Source:
DOE borrowing and lending surveys and PWLB.