HC Deb 23 July 1971 vol 821 cc367-8W
Mr. Blaker

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to help the Government of Ghana to meet the commercial debts incurred by the Nkrumah régime.

Mr. Anthony Royle

An agreement between Her Majesty's Government and the Government of Ghana to implement the conclusions of the international Conference on Ghana's debts held in London in July, 1970 was signed at Accra on 17th July. Ghana's medium-term commercial debts to Western creditors incurred

EXPENDITURE IN 1969–70 AND 1970–71 BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES QUALIFYING FOR GRANT UNDER SECTION 11 OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1966 AND THE AMOUNT OF GRANT ADVANCED TO EACH AUTHORITY IN EACH YEAR
Estimated Expenditure in 1969–70 Grant advanced in 1969–70 Estimated Expenditure in 1970–71 Grant advanced in 1970–71
£ £ £ £
GREATER LONDON :
Barnet 34,717 29,950 41,581 30,087
Brent 197,836 151,277 268,333 181,125
Camden 22,617 23,673 33,896 20,634
Croydon 86,291 67,265 121,705 82,151
Ealing 222,702 165,988 269,052 197,312
Enfield 8,412 10,386 10,888 8,370
Greenwich 4,703 4,541 5,469 4,207
Hackney 30,289 19,261 27,660 22,239
Hammersmith 63,354 53,325 83,940 56,660
Haringey 186,638 117,774 204,820 138,259
Harrow 4,340 2,216 2,856 2,713
Hillingdon 2,363 1,795 6,439 5,090
Hounslow 24,617 17,812 31,317 22,319
Inner London Education Authority 1,308,814 966,583 1,643,000 1,109,025
Islington 24,920 32,103 30,420 3,238
Kensington and Chelsea 72,745 48,866 91,925 61,522
Lambeth 113,944 88,792 153,131 103,365
Lewisham 52,105 42,673 76,691 52,470
Merton 21,400 12,719 19,847 19,114
Newham 85,248 74,933 96,792 61,953
Redbridge 41,620 24,503 40,253 25,578
Southwark 17,497 15,662 24,746 18,687
Tower Hamlets 25,103 14,152 21,838 18,865

before February, 1966 were rescheduled in 1966 and 1968. At the conference in July, 1970, the Governments of the creditor countries offered and the Ghana Government accepted further relief, to be on concessional terms, of half of the debt service due and paid between mid-1970 and mid-1972.

In our case the relief takes the form of a refinancing loan of up to £3.5 million, bearing interest at 2 per cent. and repayable over 25 years including a grace period of 7 years.