National Limit on Borrowing
The self-financed element of Prudential borrowing in Scottish local authorities impacts on the national levels of Public Sector Borrowing Requirement. Essentially, this is the amount of money that the UK as a whole is borrowing that is out-with Her Majesty's Treasury ( HMT) control. Supported borrowing levels are already included in the fiscal baseline. HMT monitor the self-financed borrowing levels closely in order to determine whether to apply a National Limit. A National Limit would effectively 'cap' local authority self-financed borrowing levels, and thus would be a last resort that HMT would use. The Scottish Government and Local Authorities have been in discussion about how best to apply any limit that would be imposed on Scotland, and are considering various options for this. Following discussions between The Scottish Government and Local Authorities an agreement has been reached on how to apply any limit that might be imposed on Scotland. The details of this protocol can be accessed at the following link: national-limit-protocol