Kent County Council finance chiefs are to travel to Iceland for a crucial meeting that could determine what the prospects are for it and other authorities to recover £920million locked into banks there.

Kent, which has £50million at stake, is to head a delegation with colleagues from the London borough of Barnet to represent all councils with taxpayers’ money at risk.

The November 11 meeting is the first formal one to be held since the crisis broke and the first chance for KCC to gauge its chances of retrieving its money, as it will detail the scale of the banks’ liabilities in relation to their remaining assets.

It will also be the first chance for councils to quiz the banks’ administrators, who will be asked to explain the reasons for their collapse and to set out their recent trading position.

A KCC spokeswoman stressed that Kent had been asked to represent the interests of all the authorities affected.

“We are actively pursuing the recovery of the money and we expect to know a lot more about what will happen as a result.”

KCC has £50million deposited in three banks - £15million with Glitnir; £17 million with Landsbanki and £18million with Heritable Bank. The latter is based in the UK and KCC is optimistic of getting most of that £18million back.