Draft Combined Authorities (Borrowing) Regulations 2022

Dan Poulter Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2022 General Committees

[Dr Dan Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I was not expecting to speak in this debate—it is the first time that I have spoken in a Delegated Legislation Committee in my time in the House—but the shadow spokesman, the hon. Member for Weaver Vale, made a very valid point about what checks and balances are in place for public bodies that are borrowing, or in effect going into debt, to invest.

The most recent example of that going very badly wrong was Croydon Council, with its borrowing to invest in the Westgate shopping centre. I believe that the council had, in effect, to declare itself bankrupt and insolvent because of that error. I will be grateful for clarification of what monitoring and checks are being put in place by the Government to ensure that local authorities are monitored properly in their use of the money that they are borrowing.

I have a second question and point of clarification. In such situations, under the 2003 Act referred to in the draft regulations some local authorities have set up companies or other arm’s length organisations to manage the money that they borrow. Auditing transparency is much more challenging in such circumstances. I would be grateful to understand how the Government intend to ensure proper transparency of accounts, as that lack of transparency led to the problems in Croydon. Will the Minister outline the answers to my questions in written correspondence, if he is unable to do so today?