Electricity Act 1957

15 Borrowing powers of Electricity Council, Generating Board and Area Boards

(1) The Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board, with the consent of the Minister and with the approval of the Treasury, or in accordance with the terms of any general authority issued by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury, may borrow temporarily, by way of overdraft or otherwise, such sums as the borrowing Council or Board may require for meeting their obligations or performing their functions.

(2) The Electricity Council, with the consent of the Minister and the approval of the Treasury, may borrow money by the issue of British Electricity Stock, for all or any of the following purposes, that is to say.—

(a) the redemption of any British Electricity Stock;

(b) the repayment of Exchequer advances made to the Central Authority or to the Electricity Council;

(c) the provision of money for meeting any expenditure incurred by the Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board in connection with any works the cost of which is properly chargeable to capital account;

(d) the provision of any working capital required by the Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board;

(e) any other purpose for which capital moneys are properly applicable by the Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board, including the repayment of money temporarily borrowed by them for any of the purposes, mentioned in this subsection;

(f) any other payment which the Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board are authorised to make and which ought, in the opinion of the Electricity Council, to be spread over a term of years.

(3) The Electricity Council may raise money, for all or any of the purposes mentioned in the last preceding subsection, by the taking of Exchequer advances from the Minister.

(4) The Generating Board or any Area Board, after consultation with the Electricity Council, and with the consent of the Minister and the approval of the Treasury, may borrow money by the issue of stock, for all or any of the following purposes, that is to say,—

(a) the redemption of any stock issued by the Board ;

(b) the provision of money for meeting any expenditure incurred by the Board in connection with any works the cost of which is properly chargeable to capital account;

(c) the provision of any working capital required by the Board;

(d) the discharge of any responsibility allocated to the Board in respect of British Electricity Stock or Exchequer advances, in so far as that responsibility is attributable to the principal of that Stock or of those advances;

(e) any other purpose for which capital moneys are properly applicable by the Board, including the repayment of any money temporarily borrowed by the Board for any of the purposes mentioned in this subsection ;

(f) any other payment which the Board are authorised to make and which ought in their opinion to be spread over a term of years.

(5) The aggregate of the amounts outstanding in respect of—

(a) the principal of any British Electricity Stock issued by the Central Authority, otherwise than for the purpose of paying compensation under Part II of the principal Act whether in stock or cash, and

(b) the principal of any Exchequer advances made to the Central Authority or to the Electricity Council, and

(c) the principal of any stock issued under this Act, and

(d) any temporary loans raised by the Central Authority, the Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board,

shall not at any time exceed the sum of fourteen hundred million pounds:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall prevent the Electricity Council, the Generating Board or any Area Board from borrowing for the purpose of redeeming any stock which they are required or entitled to redeem, or of repaying Exchequer advances, or of repaying any money temporarily borrowed by them.

(6) Neither the Electricity Council nor the Generating Board nor any Area Board shall borrow any money except in accordance with the preceding provisions of this section.

(7) In this Act " Exchequer advances " means advances made under section forty-two of the Finance Act, 1956 (which provides for the making of Exchequer advances to nationalised industries and undertakings).