York Council set to plunge further into debt

It looks like the York Council will be borrowing more money next year.

Hopes that the new administration would avoid using the £9 million reserved to subsidise the York Central project have been dashed and £900,000 remains in the budget for works to the Guildhall.  £15.714 million is earmarked for expenditure on the community stadium project.

How the debts are forecast to ncrease

How the debts are forecast to increase

Over £40 million of expenditure is being slipped from the current year into 2016/17 according to papers which will be discussed next week

The additional expenditure means that around 13% of the Council taxes that York residents pay will in future be soaked up by capital and interest repayments.

In total Councillors are being asked to add £5.5 million to the City’s debt burden next week.

A full list of expenditure proposals can be viewed by clicking here

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York Council’s debts still a cause for concern

The latest finance figures released by the York Council show that over 13% of the annual Council Tax paid by York residents is being used to pay interest charges on the Councils borrowings.

Debts Nov 2915

This equates to payments of £20.25 per person per year.

The worrying trend is in the net debts level of the Council.

This is forecast to increase from £245 million this year to £285 million in 2018.

 This figure which is concerning and reflects the fact that the present Council has yet to scrap some of the more extreme commitments that it inherited from the last Labour administration (e.g. the new swimming pool at Monks Cross, the “in house” development of the Guildhall annex site and the “bridge to nowhere” access for the York central site).