I’m glad to see that after some grim predictions about the likelihood of recovering the £2½ million that Epping Forest District Council invested with the Icelandic-owned Heritable Bank, things now look slightly more positive. The council’s Director of Financial Services gave us an update on the situation at last night’s Cabinet meeting. He now expects that 70-80 per cent of the money will be returned. The FT takes a similar view.

Of course this will still mean a loss of up to £750,000, which is a very substantial amount and would go a long way towards funding some of the capital projects the council is involved in.

Unfortunately that isn’t all local taxpayers will lose. I asked whether the council would get back the interest due on its investment. The answer revealed that the council will only recover interest from the period between when it was invested until the date the bank went into administration in October. We’ll lose all the interest that would have been received from then until whenever  the money is finally returned. I can’t remember at what rate the money was invested, but any percentage of £2½ million is a substantial sum.