by DOUG COLLIE
Not Just Sheep & Rugby understands a nationwide investigation into the extent of lending between UK local authorities will reveal some startling results with debt-ridden councils seemingly able to find spare cash to bail out their neighbours or 'colleagues' further afield.
We recently published details of the 55 loans currently held by Scottish Borders Council from the UK Government's Public Works Loans Board (PWLB), between them carrying an outstanding total sum of £159.6 million at the end of the last financial year. Those loans - some will not be settled until the 2050s - require a £14 million annual contribution from local council taxpayers to service the debt.
But it has been revealed subsequently via a Freedom of Information request that SBC borrowed a total of £20 million from City of Edinburgh Council in four separate short-term financial transactions between December 2016 and April 2018. The money was required for "general cash flow purposes", according to SBC's response to the FOI requester.
Edinburgh council's largesse in these circumstances is all the more remarkable given the city's level of indebtedness to the PWLB...96 separate loans totalling £922 million as of March 2019.
Here are the details of the four loans arranged by SBC with City of Edinburgh Council acting as bankers:
Start date maturity date amount rate interest paid total repaid
21/12/2016 20/3/2017 £6 million 0.40% £5,852.05 £6,005,852.05
23/3/2017 12/4/2017 £6 million 0.45% £1,479.45 £6,001,479.45
30/3/2017 7/4/2017 £3 million 0.50% £328.77 £3,000,328.77
2/3/2018 24/4/2018 £5 million 0.65% £4,986.30 £5,004,986.30
As far as can be ascertained this list of financial deals is not publicly minuted in council records. The FOI response does not indicate who made the arrangements or whether elected councillors knew about or sanctioned the inter-council lending.
The FOI also confirms that Scottish Borders Council has not loaned money to any other councils in recent years.
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