Skip to main content
Site logo

Main navigation

  • Home
  • News
  • My Plan
  • About Jackie
  • Contact
Site logo

Statement on Thurrock Borough Council

  • Tweet
Tuesday, 6 December, 2022
JDP

Thurrock Council has now come clean about the extent of the financial damage caused by the flawed investment strategy

As a Conservative I am utterly opposed to taking unnecessary risk with taxpayers money. When I challenged the Council on the wisdom of this strategy I was advised that it was bringing in revenue of £30m a year - £30m which would have had to be raised through council tax rises.

What we have now discovered is that the investments have lost £275m.

Since the Government intervention there has been a forensic accounting exercise to establish how these losses materialised and who is responsible. The outcome of those investigations is due in January. 

What is very clear is that Thurrock Council embarked on a financial strategy it did not have the expertise to manage. And in that regard it took an unacceptable level of risk. Furthermore, it is clear that members failed to appreciate the risks associated with this strategy. It feels like some of them still do not.

There were many warnings given to Thurrock Council over the last two and a half years. They were warned that the strategy breached prudential rules for the management of public finances by CIPFA.  They were warned by Government Ministers that the strategy had an unacceptable level of risk. And they were warned by the NAO that the borrowing strategy was fraught with risk. In the end it was this that crystallised when councils refused to lend and Thurrock Council found itself in a Northern Rock situation.

We now await the full assessment of how this situation developed unchecked. But there are clear issues of cultural behaviour at Thurrock Council which has allowed this situation to develop.  Cabinet members are there to give challenge to officers of the Council.  They are not there to simply be their spokesmen. That is especially true of the Leader. Whatever happens next these cultural issues must be addressed. The openness with which the Council is communicating regarding the financial position suggests they are.

  • Articles
  • Local News

You may also be interested in

Scotland's Gender Recognition Act

Monday, 16 January, 2023

The decision in Scotland to allow Gender recognition on the basis of self ID from the age of 16 is bad law. 

News

  • Jackies Column

Show only

  • Articles
  • Local News
  • Media
  • Opinions
  • Reports
  • Speeches in Parliament
  • Westminster News

Jackie Doyle-Price Member of Parliament for Thurrock

Footer

  • About RSS
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • About Jackie
  • Privacy
ConservativesPromoted by Mark Coxshall on behalf of Jackie Doyle-Price, both at Edward Cecil House, 799 London Road, West Thurrock, RM20 3LH.
Copyright 2023 Jackie Doyle-Price Member of Parliament for Thurrock. All rights reserved.
Powered by Bluetree