Local Government and Housing Act 1989

50 Limits on powers to enter into credit arrangements

(1) A local authority may not enter into a credit arrangement for any purpose unless, if they incurred expenditure for that purpose, it would be expenditure for capital purposes, and any reference in the following provisions of this Part to “capital purposes”, in relation to a credit arrangement, shall be construed accordingly.

(2) A local authority may not enter into a credit arrangement unless, at the time the arrangement comes into being, there is available to the authority an amount of credit cover equal to the initial cost of the arrangement.

(3) For the purposes of this section, each of the following amounts constitutes, in relation to a credit arrangement, an amount of credit cover available to a local authority,—

(a) an amount for the time being authorised by a credit approval issued to the authority;

(b) an amount of the usable part of capital receipts which, in accordance with a determination under section 60(2) below referring to the arrangement, is applied by the authority as provision to meet credit liabilities; and

(c) an amount which, in accordance with a determination of the authority referring to the arrangement, is set aside from a revenue account by the authority as provision to meet credit liabilities (being an amount over and above what they are required so to set aside by virtue of any other provision of this Part).

(4) A local authority may not enter into a credit arrangement at any time if to do so would at that time cause the total referred to in section 44(1) above to exceed the aggregate credit limit for the time being applicable to the authority by virtue of section 62 below.

(5) A determination under subsection (3)(c) above may not be made later than 30th September in the financial year following that in which falls the time when there comes into being the credit arrangement for which the credit cover is made available.

(6) Except in so far as they are applied by section 52 below, the preceding provisions of this section do not apply in relation to a transitional credit arrangement.