Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Still, what's £115m to this council?

The government plans to revamp the housing finance scheme for council houses.

According to a preliminary analysis from Trowers & Hamlins, Wiltshire Council (WC) will see their share of national debt increase by £115,000,000.

The council has the opportunity to object to the scheme but, as it seems determined to become 'a player' locally, I doubt whether it will. I suppose the council will argue that an increase from £4,000,000 to £119,000,000 is off-set by the fact that they will be able to keep future housing account surpluses (assuming there are any of course) and self-fund council house building (which would presumably involve WC in borrowing still more money).

Personally I would rather focus on how we can pass the existing debt, staff and housing stock onto a local Registered Social Landlord (RSL) such as Selwood, Westlea or Somer.

Some years ago, all the Wiltshire district councils, except Salisbury, 'moved' their council housing stock into newly formed RSLs and these new companies then borrowed money to renovate the houses etc. For some reason Salisbury DC didn't adopt this policy but kept its council housing stock. WC has now inherited these houses, the staff and the debt.

As a WC nominated board member at Selwood Housing Society (the RSL formed from the West Wiltshire District Council housing stock) I can see this issue from both sides but really can't see the logic in the current WC policy.

Interestingly, Jane Scott gave one of the reasons for axing the west Wiltshire show as it's loss of £6,000. What will she think about this increase in debt level, I wonder?