It’s insane how we let councils get into this kind of state. Having debts that are 3x their revenue is just crazy.
Going to be a lot more of these stories over the next year..
At this point you can only laugh at how appallingly poorly councils are run and managed. Unfortunately it is not so funny when you realise that’s your money that they’re mismanaging. And they’ll still ask for inflation busting rises in council tax while blaming and mis directing their poor performance on lack of central government funding.
They will also keep clobbering the tax payer any way they can for money by handing out as many fines as possible and providing the least service’s possible it’s time for the government to step in
How have they not issued a 114? (& is this in year e.g. a live we can’t balance our in year book debt). If they haven’t issued a 114 and that’s in year it squarely illustrates the problem facing Councils up and down the country e.g. you are £1.8bn in debt, there’s 3.5 months left in the year and you are still saying you are going to balance the books? How?
Actually looking at their annual budget, they’ve got a total budget of £183M, and have had £200M of cuts since 2010. It sounds like there’s some properly weird shit going on with some of their investments but with that level of cuts being applied it feels (as an outsider e.g. have never been too or through Warrington) they’ve done well to have not fallen over already.
This is what happens when councillors play entrepreneur.
Deals signed off by single finance directors who generally are very second rate in terms of experience and qualifications who wouldn’t get through the door of a big 4 firm.
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They took out loans and invested that money in bad investments. It just keeps getting worse for us
There are a few councils in this position and we will see more fall into similar issues over the next few years. Council finances are pretty perilous and we will see more bankruptcies as chickens come home to roost. Councils tried to play the property investment game and most lost (or will lose soon), which should serve as a lesson to future councillors on why trying to be the Wolves of Wall Street will not work out for them either.
When are we just going to admit that the entire “council” experiment with local government is utterly unfeasible.
Too many moving parts.
Centralize the entire government.
I understand that councils are cash strapped but they should not be allowed to speculate with tax payers money
Well this is what happens when you allow publicly funded bodies, who exist only to provide public services, behave like private businesses. Its a license to commit fraud.
Expect every council in the UK to go “bankrupt” in the next 12 months.
Absolute shitshow of a council… most residents haven’t had their bins collected since September because they can’t resolve a strike, services are already appalling and now this.
Genuine question: what happens when these councils are declared bankrupt?
With over 100 councils with a higher debt:income ratio and a central government that has been crippled financially from COVID and robbing the coffers, what the fuck happens?
They can’t even put taxes up because real time wages haven’t risen in 20 years and people can’t afford it. Can/will the UK go full Greece?
15 comments
> A council with debts of £1.8bn
It’s insane how we let councils get into this kind of state. Having debts that are 3x their revenue is just crazy.
Going to be a lot more of these stories over the next year..
At this point you can only laugh at how appallingly poorly councils are run and managed. Unfortunately it is not so funny when you realise that’s your money that they’re mismanaging. And they’ll still ask for inflation busting rises in council tax while blaming and mis directing their poor performance on lack of central government funding.
They will also keep clobbering the tax payer any way they can for money by handing out as many fines as possible and providing the least service’s possible it’s time for the government to step in
How have they not issued a 114? (& is this in year e.g. a live we can’t balance our in year book debt). If they haven’t issued a 114 and that’s in year it squarely illustrates the problem facing Councils up and down the country e.g. you are £1.8bn in debt, there’s 3.5 months left in the year and you are still saying you are going to balance the books? How?
Actually looking at their annual budget, they’ve got a total budget of £183M, and have had £200M of cuts since 2010. It sounds like there’s some properly weird shit going on with some of their investments but with that level of cuts being applied it feels (as an outsider e.g. have never been too or through Warrington) they’ve done well to have not fallen over already.
This is what happens when councillors play entrepreneur.
Deals signed off by single finance directors who generally are very second rate in terms of experience and qualifications who wouldn’t get through the door of a big 4 firm.
[deleted]
They took out loans and invested that money in bad investments. It just keeps getting worse for us
There are a few councils in this position and we will see more fall into similar issues over the next few years. Council finances are pretty perilous and we will see more bankruptcies as chickens come home to roost. Councils tried to play the property investment game and most lost (or will lose soon), which should serve as a lesson to future councillors on why trying to be the Wolves of Wall Street will not work out for them either.
When are we just going to admit that the entire “council” experiment with local government is utterly unfeasible.
Too many moving parts.
Centralize the entire government.
I understand that councils are cash strapped but they should not be allowed to speculate with tax payers money
Well this is what happens when you allow publicly funded bodies, who exist only to provide public services, behave like private businesses. Its a license to commit fraud.
Expect every council in the UK to go “bankrupt” in the next 12 months.
Absolute shitshow of a council… most residents haven’t had their bins collected since September because they can’t resolve a strike, services are already appalling and now this.
Genuine question: what happens when these councils are declared bankrupt?
With over 100 councils with a higher debt:income ratio and a central government that has been crippled financially from COVID and robbing the coffers, what the fuck happens?
They can’t even put taxes up because real time wages haven’t risen in 20 years and people can’t afford it. Can/will the UK go full Greece?