(1)The appropriate authority may make loans to the governing bodies of grant-maintained schools in respect of expenditure of any class or description specified in regulations (“loan regulations”) incurred or to be incurred by the governing bodies for or in connection with such purposes as may be so specified.
(2)Any loan under this section shall be made on such terms as loan regulations may require, being terms specified in or determined in accordance with the regulations.
(3)Where any sum is payable by the governing body of a grant-maintained school to the appropriate authority in respect of the principal of, or interest on, any loan under this section, the appropriate authority may (without prejudice to any other mode of recovery) recover the whole or any part of that sum by deducting it from any grant payable by them to the governing body.
(4)In this section “the appropriate authority”—
(a)in relation to Wales before the Schools Funding Council for Wales begin to exercise their functions, means the Secretary of State, and
(b)in any other case, means the funding authority.
(5)The funding authority shall exercise any power conferred on them by this section in such manner (if any) as may be specified in or determined in accordance with loan regulations.