WARRINGTON South MP Sarah Hall and her predecessor Andy Carter have both expressed their concerns over the Government’s damning Best Value report into Warrington Borough Council’s finances.
Ms Hall, a former Labour Borough Cllr, says she will be “keeping a close eye on progress” and will continue to hold the council to account, while Mr Carter says a new set of Leaders should oversee the Council’s improvement and recovery covering all aspects of the Council’s activity.
Ms Hall issued a statement saying: “I have read the Best Value Inspection report and the recommendations that have been given. The report highlights a number of serious conclusions relating to Warrington Borough Council that need to be addressed.
“This morning, I raised my concerns in the House of Commons and asked for a debate on the important issue of local government finances.
“Local authorities must deliver best value, demonstrate their ability to continuously improve and provide good governance for their communities. The findings from this report show that Warrington Borough Council has failed to do this.
“Warrington Borough Council while having the best interests of their residents at heart and a genuine long-standing commitment to our communities must change its approach.
“I have challenged the council on these issues and can see some progress has been made. Under new leadership, the local authority has changed direction and has already begun reducing its debt position. However, there is clearly much more to do.
“We should also recognise the serious challenges local authorities have faced over the past 14 years, the significant reductions to funding and the increased demands placed on councils up and down the country.
“Like Ministers, I will be keeping a close eye on progress and will continue to hold Warrington Borough Council to account, ensuring they deliver best value for our residents.”
Meanwhile, former Warrington South MP Andy Carter said: “This is a damning report that catalogues failures in leadership, culture, governance and of the Council’s approach to high-risk borrowing. It’s everything that I and former opposition Councillors warned about. Labour Councillors publicly criticised me when I raised concerns in Parliament, those concerns are totally justified when you read this Best Value report today.
“It’s critical of a confused strategy, a lack of openness and transparency, using public loans for purposes which they should not have been used, and it says there’s an ‘institutional behaviour’ where concerns raised by external bodies are dismissed. The report says the Council and it’s Officers have been in denial at the risks they’ve taken in borrowing £1.8bn and that the Council lacks the will or capacity to implement the recommendations from this independent inspection to address the very significant concerns.
“The report makes it clear that Labour Cabinet Members had either ‘an unwillingness or inability to challenge’ the unprecedented levels of borrowing, and that they used confidential arrangements in Council meetings to limit the scrutiny and transparency of risky borrowing, deliberately keeping it away from the public. It’s also particularly critical of senior officers and says the Council is in a precarious state because there is an absence of audited accounts since 2018/19.
“What the Council does with its borrowing to invest in commercial activity matters because the money being borrowed is public money and it’s the Warrington Council taxpayer that will have to bear the costs when things go wrong. Every household in Warrington is on the hook for around £10,000, far more than other local authorities and not something local councils should be involved in.
“It’s very obvious that significant change is required at a pace and scale that the authority has not tackled before, and I share the Inspector’s concerns that the capacity and capability does not exist within the current Council to achieve this degree of adjustment.
“Given the level of criticism around process, governance and severity of the financial issues which the Council faces, I agree with the Inspector that The Secretary of State should appoint Commissioners which would take decision making away from Officers and Councillors who have failed so badly and allow a new set of Leaders to oversee the Council’s improvement and recovery covering all aspects of the Council’s activity which are at risk because of the level of indebtedness.”
A full copy of the Best Value report can be read by CLICKING HERE
2 Comments
Sad but inevitable. Many people saw this coming, including the late Richard Buttrey who would have been pleased to see this getting some external scrutiny at last.
Party politics isn’t helpful in this context – there are Conservative councils in a similar mess. My own view? I think there were some strong personalities who let their egos get the better of them (some of these have now left the pitch, at least two are still in place).
As for Redwood Bank, this was structured in a manner which would never have made money for WBC and would almost certainly make money for the private investors. This should be investigated by police.
Ms Hall has got some brass neck given that as a councillor she was a member of the councils cabinet that voted through these dodgy investments! Why didn’t she hold the council to account then?