Able to pay as novel is damaged in street (7)
I believe the answer is:
solvent
'able to pay' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'novel is damaged in street' is the wordplay.
'is damaged' indicates anagramming the letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'street' becomes 'st'.
'novel' anagrammed gives 'olven'.
'olven' inserted inside 'st' is 'SOLVENT'.
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for solvent that I've seen before include "Having means" , "of tradable status?" , "not bust" , "ether?" , "Having assets in excess of liabilities" .)