The millions spent by Swindon Borough Council from its everyday revenue budget to service £406m of long-term borrowing it has outweighs the amount it will generate from hiking council tax this year.
The authority’s proposed 4.99 per cent increase in council tax will bring in £5m but £7.8m is spent servicing the debt.
READ MORE: Swindon council tax to go up by maximum amount
Having established that fact at the Conservative cabinet’s meeting, leader of the Labour opposition group Jim Robbins said: “So if this administration had not run up such a huge debt, it could have not raised council tax.”
That drew a sharp response from members of the cabinet, particularly leader of the council David Renard.
He said: “Councillor Robbins knows full well that we borrowed to invest in the borough and there is plenty of vital infrastructure, including things like schools, that just wouldn’t be there if we hadn’t borrowed to do that.”
Another cabinet member Dale Heenan asked how much of the £406m was borrowing made under the last Labour government’s Private Finance Initiative, and how much was the council housing debt imposed on the council by the Conservative-led coalition government in 2012.
The cabinet member for finance Keith Williams, who said he would have appreciated notice of these questions, said £43m of the debt was from PFI deals and the HRA debt had been £150m and was now £90m.
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