The Local Authorities (Companies) Order 1995

Liabilities of regulated companies

16.—(1) Any reference in this article to the relevant liabilities of a regulated company is a reference to the total of the company’s liabilities less its current assets (and the total so calculated may, accordingly, be a negative amount); and for this purpose, subject to paragraph (7)—

(a)“current assets” shall be construed in accordance with section 262(1) of the 1985 Act, but do not include—

(i)land in which the company has any interest, or

(ii)any liability owed to the company by a member of the same local authority group unless the liability was incurred before the date on which the company became a regulated company (“the relevant date”);

(b)where the company’s current assets in a financial year are reduced by any payments made by the company under—

(i)any credit transaction treated as having been entered into by the relevant authority by virtue of article 13(1)(d) above, or

(ii)any variation of the terms of a credit transaction treated as having been agreed by the relevant authority by virtue of article 13(1)(e) above,

they shall be treated as if those payments had not been made;

(c)“liabilities” do not include—

(i)any liability under a credit transaction entered into by the company after the relevant date,

(ii)any liabilities under an agreement entered into by the company after the relevant date to a variation of the terms of a credit transaction entered into before the relevant date, or

(iii)any liability which is owed by the company to a person who is a member of the same local authority group, unless the liability was incurred before the relevant date; and

(d)subject to paragraph (2), the sum of the called-up share capital of a regulated company with respect to shares held by persons who are not members of the same local authority group, and any premium paid to the company for such shares, is to be treated as a liability of the company.

(2) Where any shares in a regulated company are transferred by the relevant authority to a person who is not a member of the same local authority group, the liabilities of the company on and at any time after the date on which the shares are transferred shall not include the amount which is on that date the called-up share capital of the company with respect to those shares.

(3) A regulated company incurs additional liabilities where in any financial year (in this article referred to as “year two”) its relevant liabilities exceed its relevant liabilities in the financial year immediately preceding year two (in this article referred to as “year one”).

(4) A regulated company reduces its liabilities where its relevant liabilities in year one exceed its relevant liabilities in year two.

(5) The liabilities of a regulated company in a financial year shall be the aggregate of the amounts for liabilities—

(a)shown in the company’s balance sheet prepared as at a date in that year, or, if there is more than one such balance sheet, in the last such balance sheet to have been prepared, or, if there is no such balance sheet,

(b)determined by the relevant authority as at the end of that year, or, if earlier, as at the date immediately before the date on which the company ceases to be a regulated company of that authority.

(6) Where year two is the financial year in which by virtue of the coming into force of this Part or otherwise the company becomes a regulated company, the aggregate of the amounts determined by the relevant authority in accordance with paragraph (7) shall be treated for the purposes of paragraphs (3) and (4) as the company’s relevant liabilities in year one.

(7) The relevant authority shall determine the amounts which would have been the company’s relevant liabilities as at the date immediately before it became a regulated company; and for this purpose—

(a)the provisions in paragraph (1)(c) and (d) shall not apply, and

(b)the company’s liabilities shall include the sum of the company’s total called-up share capital and any premium paid to the company for such shares.

(8) Where two companies are members of the same local authority group, and the relevant liabilities of the companies in a particular financial year fall to be calculated as at different dates, if as a result of a transaction or a group of transactions between those companies—

(a)the relevant liabilities in that year of one company would, apart from this paragraph, be reduced,

(b)the relevant liabilities in that year of the other company would, if the relevant liabilities of the two companies fell to be calculated as at the same date, be increased, and

(c)the relevant liabilities in that year of the other company are not increased or are increased by an amount which is less than the amount of the reduction referred to in sub-paragraph (a),

no account shall be taken of the amount of that reduction in calculating the relevant liabilities in that year of the company mentioned in sub-paragraph (a).