Clause 12 - Prudential borrowing code
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Stephen McCabe (Birmingham, Hall Green, Labour)
I sense the frustration of my right hon. Friend the Minister as he tries to explain this. Perhaps I am being remarkably dim, but I cannot quite understand the mechanism that ensures fairness. Foundation trusts will be on a faster track—it will be easier to identify their borrowing needs and to make progress with their plans. I support that, but if the money all comes out of an overall borrowing sum—a total figure—I fear that by making all this fast-track progress they will be eating up that sum and that there will be less for the people who are plodding through the existing borrowing arrangement. What is the mechanism to ensure that that does not happen and that there is fair distribution?