The Local Authorities (Capital Finance) (Rate of Discount for 2003/04) (England) Regulations 2003

Statutory Instruments

2003 No. 248

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ENGLAND

The Local Authorities (Capital Finance) (Rate of Discount for 2003/04) (England) Regulations 2003

Made

7th February 2003

Laid before Parliament

13th February 2003

Coming into force

1st April 2003

The First Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 49(2) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989(1) hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and extent

1.  These Regulations, which extend to England only(2), may be cited as the Local Authorities (Capital Finance) (Rate of Discount for 2003/04) (England) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on 1st April 2003.

Rate of discount

2.  The percentage rate of discount prescribed for the financial year beginning on 1st April 2003 for the purposes of defining “r” in section 49(2) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 shall be 7.0 per cent.

Signed by authority of the First Secretary of State

Nick Raynsford

Minister of State

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

7th February 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Part 4 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 makes provision for the capital finance of local authorities. Section 49(2) sets out a formula for determining for the purposes of Part 4 the value of the consideration falling to be given by a local authority under a credit arrangement in any financial year after the one in which the arrangement comes into being. The percentage rate of discount prescribed for the financial year is one of the factors referred to in the formula. For the financial year beginning on 1st April 2003 these Regulations prescribe 7.0 per cent, which is 0.2 per cent less than the rate of discount prescribed for 2002/03.

(1)

1989 c. 42

(2)

The relevant powers of the Secretary of State have been devolved, in relation to Wales, by the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672); see the reference to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 in Schedule 1.