Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 16 October 2019.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 1:56, 16 October 2019

Minister, you referred to regeneration activities and social housing as positive examples where local government in Wales might be borrowing money, but there are also—there's some evidence, at least, of local government borrowing in Wales motivated by the commercial property portfolio investment. One example is Monmouthshire, and we've heard in this Chamber quite frequently how tough Monmouthshire has found the budget in terms of the far, far lesser amount it gets from Welsh Government than many other councils. And I just wonder whether this is their response to it in the way we've seen from these English councils.

It was quite a significant commercial property portfolio that Monmouthshire already had, but there have been two deals this year where they've added to it, funded from the Public Works Loan Board. There was a £7 million purchase of Castlegate Business Park in Caldicot, and then in March, a larger £21 million purchase of the Newport Leisure Park, which is outside the Monmouthshire council area—£21 million spent on that, and they're hoping that there'll be £1.4 million of rent coming in. So, if we have got councils borrowing at 1.8 per cent, now at 2.8 per cent, and potentially getting yields of 6 or 7 per cent, isn't this something that's potentially going to continue and get larger, and what is Welsh Government doing to ensure that such borrowing is appropriate and that the local councils involved have the necessary expertise and aren't taking excessive risks for which they might, at some future date, look for assistance from Welsh Government?