Clause 12 - Power to invest
Local Government Bill
10:30 am
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office; Shipley, Labour)
I shall not detain the Committee long: clause 12 is fairly self-explanatory. In the process of a cash flow and other normal business undertaken by a local authority, investing sums of money may be required, but oddly there is no explicit permissive power for that
currently. The clause changes that. Its purpose is to avoid doubt about the power of local authorities to invest. Guidance notes are likely to be issued to supplement that freedom, which we touch on later in the Bill. The Bill does not explicitly define the term ''invest'', because it should be interpreted in the normal sense. In other words, it means to place funds with a bank or others for safekeeping.