George Young (North West Hampshire, Conservative)

I have one or two small points. Looking at subsection (1) about the short-term borrowings of the HCA, will those fall within the financial limits referred to in clause 26 or will they be outside the £2,300 million that is set as the financial limit? Perhaps the Minister could clarify whether they are within the overall limit.

Subsection (1) refers to the short-term management of the HCA’s finances. In the days when we used to have bank managers and I used to talk to them, I often found that their interpretation of a short-term arrangement was somewhat different from my own. I wonder whether there is a definition of a short-term arrangement that would make it absolutely clear whether borrowing fell within subsection (1), or whether it was on a longer term arrangement.

Turning to subsection (2), which is more serious for long-term borrowing, I am intrigued about the HCA’s rather restrictive line of credit. It has to borrow either from the Secretary of State or the European Investment Bank. I am not one of those in my party who gets frantically excited about matters European, but it would be helpful to have an explanation of why the European Investment Bank, alone among many other banks, has the privileged status of being the only one that can lend serious money to the HCA.

Iain Wright (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government; Hartlepool, Labour)

I will be short and sweet. In respect of the right hon. Gentleman’s first point about whether short-term borrowings will fall within limits as per clause 26, I can confirm that they will. On his point about the restricted nature of the agency’s borrowings via the Secretary of State or the European Investment Bank, may I point out to him that that is deliberate and in common with former arrangements with organisations such as English Partnerships to ensure that we are not compromised in respect of public borrowing requirements and state aid? I hope that that reassures the right hon. Gentleman.