Cabinet member 'comfortable' on £1bn debt forecast

Mark Lowry, cabinet member for finance at Plymouth City Council, said the authority's borrowing was in line with approved strategies

A council's financial chief has said he was "comfortable" with the authority's level of debt heading towards £1bn.

Mark Lowry, cabinet member for finance, told Plymouth City Council's scrutiny management board that while his latest report for the first three months of the financial year might "set alarm bells ringing", the figures were "incredibly misleading".

Figures showed Plymouth's borrowing figure was set to reach nearly £1bn by the 2028/29 financial year.

Labour councillor Lowry said the authority managed its borrowing in line with approved capital and treasury management strategies to ensure borrowing was "managed responsibly, and sustainably" and operated within defined parameters.

The council topped the chart for the highest borrowing authority in Devon at the end of March 2025 and the amount is forecast to rise to £857m during this financial year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Councils are legally obliged to set an affordable borrowing limit each year which is informed by the The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's Prudential Code.

Independent councillor Steve Ricketts said his "mind boggled" every time he looked at the figures.

Ricketts asked Lowry: "How comfortable are we with that level of debt, how easy is it to balance?

"I know we are not in that position, but when you see cases like Birmingham City Council going bankrupt and they start reeling off the figures, I always think what was going on at their scrutiny meetings building up to that."

In response, Lowry said the debt had to be balanced against the income and the investments the council borrowed money against.

He said there were grants which could not go on the books as they were not allowed to and investments making millions of pounds of income.

"If you add all that in, the percentage of borrowing is much more palatable," Lowry said.

"Personally I am comfortable with it."