Stroud District Council borrows £91m for housing stock
A borough council in Gloucestershire has borrowed about £91m to "buy itself out" of a government scheme.
Stroud District Council has taken out the 30-year loan as part of a government initiative to hand housing stock over to councils.
The authority said it was paying £10m a year back to central government, the equivalent of 30 pence in every pound of rent. The new loan would halve that.
Councillor Carl Brazier said they would be "15 pence in the pound better off".
"It's going to give us far more flexibility and more money to invest in our stock," he said.
"And high on the list of what we want is improvements in the stock and work on energy matters to make sure the properties are more energy efficient.
"Also building new homes, that's key if we want to reduce our waiting list."
Stroud District Council has 5,213 council homes in its district.