FINANCE officers have admitted they are no closer to finding out if Stoke-on-Trent City Council can recover £5 million it invested in failed Icelandic banks.

The Local Government Association had told councils that negotiations between the UK and Icelandic governments were expected to resolve the situation by the end of November.

But the city council's director of central services, Julie Gill, has told members the situation is still unclear.

However, she assured them that the council was taking a cautious approach and budgeting for the possibility that the money cannot be recovered.

She said: "We still don't know where things are up to, but the noises from government are positive.

"The Government last week issued a notice saying that we don't have to take it into account for our budget plans for next year. But there isn't enough information at the moment to say whether the money might be lost or not.

"What we have decided to do is to make sure our finances stack up, so it is taken into account in the reserves for the second and third years of our three-year strategy."