?HILLINGDON Council’s leader says ‘almost all’ of the money the authority lost in the Icelandic bank collapse will be recovered.

Councillor Ray Puddifoot said he was optimistic following a decision by Iceland’s Supreme Court that local authorities should be given ‘preferred creditor status’ for the deposits they lost in 2008.

The council wrote off £2.5million of the £20m when it approved its budget this year.

Mr Puddifoot said: “The council deposited £15m with Heritable and £5m with Landsbanki. We have so far reclaimed nearly £10m from Heritable but nothing from Landsbanki.

“We prepared for the worst and I took the decision to put aside £2.5m of reserves to cover any potential loss.

“But last week’s decision means we should now recover almost all the money deposited with Landsbanki.”?