Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to support newly formed councils inheriting debts from councils due to be abolished in local government reorganisation.

In general, as with previous rounds of local government reorganisation, there is no proposal for council debt to be addressed centrally or written off as part of reorganisation.

However, the government accepts that Woking Borough Council and Thurrock Council hold significant and exceptional unsupported debt, related to capital practices, that cannot be managed locally in their entirety. The government has committed to providing debt repayment support for both these councils. Any support will need to consider what further action these councils can take locally within their capacity to reduce debt, and value for money for the national and local taxpayer. We will continue to work with both these councils and Best Value Commissioners on the issue of their unmanageable debt and provide further details in due course.