Brent Council refuses to reveal how they will spend millions recovered from Icelandic banks

Town hall are staying tight-lipped with plans for �8m

Millions of pounds lost by Brent Council when the Icelandic banks collapsed will be recovered this year but the local authority is refusing to say how the money will be spent.

The money was lost in 2008 when the Icelandic Government put the banks it had not already nationalised into administration.

But �15 million of Brent taxpayers’ money was in two of them.

The local authority is expecting to fully recover almost all of the �5million deposit with Glitnir Bank with repayments starting at the end of February.

It also had �10million deposited with Heritable Bank and to date more than �6.5million has been returned.

The council hopes to recover about 80 per cent of this deposit over the next 12 to 18 months.

However, when the Times asked how this money will be spent, a council spokesman said: “It is money already earmarked for planned spending which we have just been holding in investments until we need to spend it.”

Pete Firmin, from campaign group Brent Fightback, said: “The council only holds this money for the people of Brent. “I would like to know where exactly this money will be going. It has said it is earmarked for planned spending – what exactly? If they are getting �15million back it could be put into services and save them from being cut.”

The council is having to make �104 million of cuts over four years following cuts to their grant from central government.