WITH reference to Tom Wareing's letter (Advertiser, August 9) concerning the possibility of Redditch Council becoming debt-free.

Redditch Council will become debt-free next year without selling its housing stock.

It is able to do so because for the last three years, it has been building up reserves and paying off loans when prudent to do so.

The debt was accumulated over the last 30 years and occurred as a result of both Conservative and Labour decisions.

I think Tom was a member of the Conservative group that decided to build the current town hall, financing the cost with a 30-year loan repaid early by Labour recently.

The level of debt never has been as high as Tom implies. What he does is to add the housing debt of the Redditch Development Corporation, which although featured in the accounts of Redditch Council, was paid for by central Government.

The £64 million investment does not include our normal revenue spending and is broken down as follows:

l £20 million from the new major repairs grant from central Government.

l £20 million from capital receipts which are 100 pe cent usable because we are debt-free.

l £14 million from the sale of assets, such as land and some industrial and commercial properties.

£10 million of Redditch Council money goes into repairs of its housing stock.

At least £14 million of the money available will be spent on non-housing projects, which will benefit everyone in Redditch.

Dave Cartwright

Chairman

Policy and Resources Committee

Redditch Council