Local Government (Hansard, 10 June 2002)

Mr. Michael Foster
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions which local authorities have debt-free status and have retained their housing stock. [58996]

§ Mr. McNulty
I have been asked to reply.
The following local authorities with council housing as at 30 September 2001 were debt-free in 2001–02:

Barking and Dagenham

Bracknell Forest

Bromsgrove

Broxbourne

City of London

Corby

Crawley

Dacorum

Dartford

Daventry

East Devon

Forest Heath

Harlow

Mid Bedfordshire
1025W
Mole Valley

Redditch

Runnymede

Salisbury

Slough

South Cambridgeshire

South Northamptonshire

St. Edmundsbury

Stevenage

Tandridge

Three Rivers

Uttlesford

Watford

Waverley

Welwyn Hatfield

Wycombe

Source:
Capital Payments and Receipts (CPR2) 2001–02
Definition: An authority was debt-free on 30 September 2001 if (a) at 31 March 2001, the authority's credit ceiling was nil or a negative amount and (b) at 30 September 2001, the authority had no money outstanding by way of external borrowing other than short-term borrowing or hard to redeem debt, as defined in Regulation 154 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance) Regulations 1997

§ Mr. Mark Field
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) whether the announcement of proposals for the reform of local government funding will include indicative figures on the impact of local authorities grant positions of the proposals; [59163]
(2) if the review of local government funding will be followed by a period of consultation with local authorities before final decisions on changes to the funding formulas for local authority grants are implemented;
(3) if he will make a statement on the timetable for the announcement of the review of local government funding and the implementation of the conclusions from that review. [59164]

§ Mr. Leslie
I have been asked to reply.
The Government will consult over the summer on options for the new system of revenue grant distribution to local authorities. We will make an announcement on the precise form of that consultation in due course. We intend our conclusions on the way forward to be announced in late November or early December, when we set out the proposed grant distribution to local authorities for 2003–04.