AQW 9115/17-22

Mr Andrew Muir
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 20/10/2020
Answered On Date: 28/10/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities whether permission will be given to district councils to capitalise redundancy payments.

Answer:

Section 19(5) of the Local Government Finance Act (NI) 2011 allows my Department to issue capitalisation directions to councils. This permits, in very limited circumstances, specified items of expenditure normally classified as revenue to be treated as capital expenditure.

As part of the Reform of Local Government, cost cutting measures such as staff severance costs, were considered to meet the capitalisation criteria during the period 1 April 2015 – 31 December 2019.

My officials are currently looking at options of how the use of capitalisation directions for staff severance costs could be utilised for the COVID-19 pandemic.