§ Baroness Lane-Foxasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether local authorities may benefit from the availability of additional capital resources this year to carry out much-needed repair and maintenance work.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Lord Bellwin)Where local authorities borrow to carry out repair and maintenance work on their own housing stock, the work counts as prescribed expenditure and it is open to authorities, under the terms of the announcement made by my center honourable friend the Secretary of 1165WA State for the Environment in another place on 27th October, to apply for an additional capital expenditure allocation for the purpose of carrying out additional work in the present financial year. For non-housing services, local authorities are already empowered by the terms of a general borrowing approval issued under the Local Government Act 1972 to borrow, subject to a cash ceiling, for purposes including the repair and maintenance of land and buildings. My officials have written to the local authority associations to make it clear that the Government will be prepared to consider giving additional borrowing approvals to authorities wishing to carry out additional repair and maintenance work to public buildings, highways, etc. before the end of the financial year.