| answer text |
<p>The £1 billion additional borrowing programme, which we launched in the summer,
was over subscribed with local authorities submitting a total of almost 1,000 bids
exceeding £2.8 billion additional borrowing. This scale of bids helped to demonstrate
local authority demand for additional borrowing and appetite to increase council house
building, and helped to inform the decision to abolish the Housing Revenue Account
borrowing cap.</p><p>The Autumn Budget confirmed the complete abolition of the borrowing
cap with immediate effect. With the issuing of a determination that revoked the previous
determinations specifying local authority limits on indebtedness, local authorities
can now borrow for house building in accordance with the Prudential Code without seeking
permission for borrowing from the Government. As a result, the bids that local authorities
submitted for additional borrowing through the £1 billion borrowing programme have
fallen away.</p><p>We anticipate that local authorities may wish to reflect on their
house building plans in light of the abolition of the borrowing cap, and may wish
to develop new and even more ambitious plans for house building. In light of this,
it would not be appropriate to publish details about the schemes that local authorities
submitted to the £1 billion borrowing programme, as these schemes may now be out of
date.</p><p> </p>
|
|
