Council borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board remained low in December, the second full month since the Treasury increased the interest rate.
Authorities borrowed £117.7m during the month, up from the £80m borrowed in November, but well down on October’s total of £469.3m.
The full-year total of borrowing for 2019 came to £10.3bn, up from 2018’s £7.5bn.
During October, Whitehall threw a hand grenade into local authority borrowing plans by announcing a whole percentage point increase in the rate of borrowing from the facility.
