Local Government and Housing Act 1989

49 Initial and subsequent cost of credit arrangements

(1) Subject to subsection (3) and section 52 below, for the purposes of this Part the initial cost of a credit arrangement is the amount which, at the time the arrangement comes into being, the local authority estimate will be the aggregate of—

(a) any consideration which falls to be given by the authority under the arrangement in the financial year in which it comes into being; and

(b) the value of the consideration falling to be given by the authority under the arrangement in any subsequent financial year, determined in accordance with subsection (2) below.

(2) For each subsequent financial year referred to in subsection (1)(b) above, the value of the consideration falling to be given in that year shall be determined by the formula—

where—

• “x” is the amount of the consideration which the authority estimate will be given by them under the arrangement in that financial year;

• “r” is the percentage rate of discount prescribed for the financial year in which the arrangement came into being by regulations made by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this section; and

• “n” is the financial year in which the consideration falls to be given expressed as a year subsequent to the financial year in which the arrangement came into being (so that the first of the subsequent financial years is 1, the next financial year is 2, and so on).

(3) Subsection (2) above does not apply to a credit arrangement of a description excluded from that subsection by regulations made by the Secretary of State; and, in relation to a credit arrangement which is so excluded, regulations so made shall make provision for the method of calculating the initial cost and the cost of the arrangement at any time.

(4) Subject to subsection (3) above and sections 51 and 52 below, the cost of a credit arrangement at any time after it has come into being shall be determined in accordance with subsections (1) and (2) above (in like manner as the determination of the initial cost) but on the basis of an estimate made at the time in question and leaving out of account any consideration which has been given by the authority under the arrangement before that time.

(5) In the application of this section to a credit arrangement which consists, in whole or in part, of a contract, the consideration under which falls within subsection (7) of section 48 above,—

(a) if the credit arrangement exists only on the basis of one of the assumptions in that subsection, the local authority shall make that assumption for the purposes of this section; and

(b) if the credit arrangement would exist on the basis of any two or more of those assumptions, the authority shall for the purposes of this section make whichever of those assumptions seems to them most likely.