Local Authority Debt (Hansard, 20 January 2004)

§ Mr. Raynsford

The table below lists the 134 local authorities that had debt-free status as of 30 September 2003:

It was formerly our practice to take into account local authorities' capital receipts when issuing the credit approvals which allow them to borrow. That ended in April 2003. No estimates are available of the resources thereby redistributed from debt-free authorities to metropolitan authorities.

The redistribution of resources remains a fundamental principle of the housing finance system. It is currently achieved by the requirement for authorities to set aside for debt redemption part of their housing capital receipts. Debt-free authorities are exempt and have thus enjoyed an advantage unavailable to others, but that anomaly will be corrected from 1 April this year, when set-aside is replaced by pooling, under which all authorities must pay part of their housing capital receipts to the Government. Transitional measures will protect debt-free authorities from the full impact of this new redistribution mechanism for three years. Thereafter they will be treated on the same basis as authorities with debt. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister consider that the recently introduced the new prudential framework for local authority borrowing and authorities who need to borrow and can afford to do so should not be deterred by artificial incentives to remain free of debt.

Local authorities who have reported that they have 'debt free status' as at 30 September 2003

Ashford
Aylesbury Vale
Babergh
Barking&Dagenham
Basingstoke&Deane
Bath&North East Somerset
Bedford
Bracknell Forest
Breckland
Bridgnorth
Broadland
Bromley
Bromsgrove
Broxbourne
Cambridge
Chelmsford
Cherwell
Chichester
Chiltern
Christchurch
City of London
Congleton
Corby
Cotswold
Crawley
Dacorum
Dartford
Daventry
East Cambridgeshire
East Devon
East Dorset
East Hampshire
East Lindsey
East Northamptonshire
Eastleigh
Eden
Elmbridge
Epping Forest
Epsom&Ewell
Erewash
Exeter
Forest Heath
Fylde
Guildford
Hambleton
Harlow
Hart
Havant
Hertsmere
Horsham
Huntingdonshire
Kennet
Lichfield
Macclesfield
Maldon
Malvern Hills
Mendip
Mid Bedfordshire
Mid Sussex
Mole Valley
Newcastle-under-Lyme
North Devon
North Dorset
North Wiltshire
Penwith
Redditch
Reigate&Banstead
Rother
Runnymede
Rushcliffe
Rushmoor
Ryedale
Salisbury
Sevenoaks
Shrewsbury&Atcham
South Bucks
South Cambridgeshire
South Hams
South Lakeland
South Northamptonshire
South Oxfordshire
South Shropshire
South Somerset
South Staffordshire
Spelthorne
St. Albans
St. Edmundsbury
Staffordshire Moorlands
Stevenage
Stratford-on-Avon
Suffolk Coastal
Surrey Heath
Swale
Tandridge
Tewkesbury
Three Rivers
Ton bridge&Malling
Tunbridge Wells
Tynedale
Uttlesford
Vale Royal
Vale of White Horse
Watford
Waverley
Wellingborough
Welwyn Hatfield
West Berkshire UA
West Devon
West Dorset
West Lindsey
West Oxfordshire
West Wiltshire
Winchester
Windsor&Maidenhead
Woking
Worthing
Wychavon
Wycombe
Wyre
Wyre Forest
Dorset police authority
Kent police authority
Suffolk police authority
Sussex police authority
Wiltshire police authority
Dartmoor national park authority
Exmoor national park authority
Lake District national park
North York Moors national park authority
Northumberland national park authority
Peak national park authority
The Broads Authority
Yorkshire Dales national park authority
North London waste authority

1203W

For the purpose of this table, an authority is 'debt-free' only if: (a) at 31 March 2003, the authority's credit ceiling was nil or a negative amount and (b) at 30 September 2003, 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.