§ Mr. Jannerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what capital receipts the Leicester city council has been able to make use of in 1986–87 compared with 1979–80; and what percentage of its receipts from the sale of council houses it has been permitted to use for other housing purposes.
§ Mr. Chope[pursuant to his reply, 13 March 1987, c. 341]: In 1979–80 Leicester city council reported that it had generated £1,283,000 capital receipts. Under the control system operating at that time, which focused on borrowing, all these receipts could be used to repay debt or to finance capital expenditure. The authority may have held unspent capital receipts from earlier years but the Department has no records about that.
Figures are only available for the first nine months of 1986–87. The authority has reported generating £9,630,000 receipts in that period. In addition the authority held accumulated capital receipts of £47,770,000 at the start of the year. The prescribed proportion rules allow Leicester city council to increase its prescribed capital expenditure in 1986–87 by £14,051,000 of the above receipts together with the prescribed proportion of the receipts it generates in the remainder of the year. The authority is free to use all the cash from its receipts to repay debt and to finance capital expenditure which is not prescribed.
The prescribed proportion for most housing receipts is 20 per cent., for housing land 30 per cent. and for receipts arising from low cost home ownership schemes 100 per cent. Receipts may be used for whatever services the authority chooses.