Councils across the UK have been urged to pool their cash reserves in a nationwide ‘mutual bank’ worth up to £3 billion, to support local infrastructure projects and avoid a repeat of the chaos caused by the collapse of Iceland’s banks, when hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money was frozen. The New Local Government Network found that more than 80 per cent of local authorities were in favour of the idea, and between them could create a mutual bank worth between £389 million and £2.8 billion.
