§ Mr. Clayasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the total amount of capital receipts which (a) all local authorities, (b) local authorities in the northern region and (c) the borough of Sunderland are currently prevented from spending because of the regulations regarding such spending which prevail at present.
§ Mrs. Rumbold[pursuant to her reply, 3 June 1986, c. 495]: Under the present capital control arrangements local authorities can spend all their capital receipts over time. Receipts can be used to repay debt or to finance capital expenditure in lieu of borrowing at any time. But the amount which can be used in any one year to justify extra capital expenditure in addition to allocations is limited by the relevant prescribed proportions.
Information on the accumulated capital receipts of individual local authorities is only available for 1984–85. At the end of that year local authorities in England held accumulated receipts of £6.2 billion. Of that total, £3.8 billion was backed by cash; the remainder had been used for purposes such as debt repayment. The prescribed proportion of the accumulated receipts available to justify additional capital expenditure in 1985–86 was £1.7 billion.
The equivalent figures for local authorities in the northern region and for the borough of Sunderland were as follows:
£ million Northern Region Sunderland Borough Council Accumulated receipts at the end of 1984–85 327 26 Cash backed accumulated receipts at end of 1984–85 182 9 Prescribed proportion of accumulated receipts available in 1985–86 83 6