To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much money was borrowed by local authorities, which was (a) sanctioned by Government and (b) not sanctioned by Government (i) overall and (ii) from abroad, in each year since 1979.
Total net external borrowing, that is net of repayments, and total net direct borrowing from abroad by local authorities in England was as follows:
| Total net borrowing | of which direct from abroad | |
| (£ million) | (£ million) | |
| 1979–80 | 2,228 | n/a |
| 1980–81 | 1,741 | 6 |
| 1981–82 | −326 | 7 |
| 1982–83 | 42 | 15 |
| 1983–84 | 1,018 | 32 |
| 1984–85 | 2,246 | 8 |
Total net borrowing
| of which direct from abroad
| |
(£ million)
| (£ million)
| |
| 1985–86 | 2,042 | 71 |
| 1986–87 | 1,703 | 14 |
| 1987–88 | 2,152 | 45 |
| 1988–89 | 2,588 | 19 |
Local authorities may borrow without the approval of my right hon. Friend in anticipation of revenue and for the purpose of repaying existing loans. They may also borrow for any other purpose or class of purpose approved by my right hon. Friend. In practice, in the years mentioned in the question local authorities operated loans pools which were partly funded by external borrowing and partly from internal sources such as balances and unapplied capital receipts. Expenditure financed from loans pools under borrowing approvals given by my right hon. Friend was as follows:
Expenditure financed from loans pools
| |
(£ million)
| |
| 1979–80 | 2,992 |
| 1980–81 | 2,900 |
| 1981–82 | 2,527 |
| 1982–83 | 3,358 |
| 1983–84 | 3,538 |
| 1984–85 | 3,381 |
| 1985–86 | 3,008 |
| 1986–87 | 2,814 |
| 1987–88 | 2,953 |
| 1988–89 | not yet available |