Clause 2 - Control of borrowing
Local Government Bill
9:45 am
Mr John Pugh (Southport, Liberal Democrat)
One has to see the amendments that we have moved in the round, but our general attitude is that prudence should be defined externally, rather than by the Minister's whim of the moment. The CIPFA code has not emerged from nowhere; it was intensely negotiated with the local authorities and a variety of different financial institutions—it is not an off-the-peg code that was devised on an ad hoc basis. Therefore, as we go through the Bill, the Minister should carefully consider not what he will allow local authorities to do that he would approve of, but what he is prepared to allow local authorities to do that is prudent but which he might not approve of.