Council wins approval at last for £72m deal

OFFICIAL SIGN-OFF SHOWS THERE WAS ‘NO WRONGDOING'

- By ALISON STEPHENSON

PLYMOUTH City Council has got the official sign-off from the government for its controversial £72 million pension deal.

The authority says it has brought closure to months of speculation surrounding its financial management.

It comes more than 18 months after the government first indicated it was minded to grant a capitalisation direction to address the 2019 transaction, which involved the council borrowing money from the Public Works Loan Board to reduce the long-term cost of a pension deficit on its revenue budget.

The move, which the council said resulted in savings of over £9 million, involved it investing in an independent investment company called Miel Solutions Ltd.

It was flagged up after auditors raised their eyebrows to the action and was later the subject of a government investigation, after ministers said they would explore “the novel arrangements to circumvent accounting principles”.