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Local Authorities: Investments

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Barbara Follett) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The Government are grateful for the Communities and Local Government Committee’s second report of Session 2009-10, Local authority investments: the role of the Financial Services Authority. The committee’s primary recommendation is that, "the Government bring forward the necessary legislative changes to place within the remit of the Financial Services Authority the provision of advice or information relating to deposit taking" (paragraph 16). Having carefully considered the recommendation, the Government are not persuaded that such a course would be appropriate. The Department for Communities and Local Government has issued revised statutory guidance on investments which came into force on 1 April 2010. This includes a new recommendation that authorities’ investment strategies should comment on their use of treasury management advisers. This will encourage officers to make explicit their procedures for using advisers and will give elected Members the opportunity to scrutinise those arrangements. The revised Guidance on Local Government Investments is available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents /localgovernment/pdf/1501971.pdf. Copies of the guidance have been placed in the Library of the House.