THE political fall-out from a leaked letter highlighting Government concerns over Warrington Borough Council’s high level of debt has sparked both Tory and Labour leadership teams to call for each other to resign.
The Warrington Conservative opposition group is calling for the resignation of the Council’s Leader, Cllr Russ Bowden, and the Deputy Leader, Cllr Cathy Mitchell, over the contents of a leaked letter from Lee Rowley MP, the Local Government Minister.
But in response, Cllr Mitchell accused Warrington South MP Andy Carter of leaking the letter, which he has denied, and is calling for his resignation, along with the Tory leadership team, accusing them of breaching the Nolan principles while issuing a press release “littered with inaccuracies”.
It follows the leaked letter which was sent to council leader Cllr Russ Bowden last July. In the letter, Mr Rowley states:…”We have been engaging with the council due to its high levels of debt and extent of commercial activity, on which the Council is a significant outlier. As of March 2023, the council’s debt is £1.8b, which is 9.9 times the council’s core spending power (CP).
He went on to say: “Such levels of debt present significant risks to the Council and public finances,” adding that the findings of an external review by CIPFA “are very serious”.
Tory leader Cllr. Nigel Balding
Cllr Nigel Balding, Leader of the Conservative Group, first called on Cllr Bowden and Cllr Mitchell to resign by proposing a motion of “no confidence” at an Extraordinary Meeting of WBC on 9 February 2022 following the collapse of one of Warrington’s first investments in a company called Together Energy.
The Tories say WBC’s investment in Redwood Bank has also been “written down” by millions of pounds whilst other shareholders have “done rather well”.
They also claim the business case for the £65M planned investment in a solar energy park was riddled with mistakes while also saying an attempt to subsidise LiveWire CIC was against the competition rules.
Cllr Balding commented: “Warrington desperately needs a change of course before it is too late, and this is impossible with Cllr Bowden and Cllr Mitchell in charge. If they remain in position following the letter from the government and their poor financial decision-making, then this will undermine the financial credibility of Warrington Borough Council. I and the Conservative Group call upon Cllr Bowden and Cllr Mitchell to resign.”
Deputy leader Cllr. Cathy Mitchell and Council leader Cllr. Russ Bowden
Cllr Ken Critchley (Conservative Group Finance Spokesperson) added: “Cllrs Bowden and Mitchell have trashed the financial reputation of Warrington with their reckless use of public funds.
“To now be in a position where the government is being forced to intervene to bring some sanity back to the Council’s reckless plans is a huge indictment of the failed Labour policy. In many cases, this policy of borrowing to invest has resulted in high-risk low-return investments. “
“It’s time for Cllr Bowden and Cllr Mitchell to own up to the folly of their financial strategy and resign. Warrington deserves better.”
In response to the Tories’ calls for resignations, Cllr Mitchell responded: “The local Conservatives have now been in opposition for almost three years. In Government, the Conservatives have practically destroyed the public sector through austerity cuts. Councils nationally have lost 60p in the pound of funding. In many councils, like Warrington, most of their revenue budget is spent on adult social care and children’s services. In Warrington, back in 2010, the Government used to contribute £70m per year towards our revenue budget – even though demand has risen – the government now only contributes just over £1m. If we had done nothing, there would be nothing left, certainly no libraries, no investments in our parks and gardens, none of the services that people need and deserve. People would have felt the full force of Tory cuts.
“The local Conservatives have an opportunity every time the council budget is set to put forward an alternative budget. They have failed to do so – why?
“In order to avoid cutting public services and to achieve objectives the council has made investments, the vast majority of those investments are secured on property, so could be sold to repay the money borrowed, if that was a good thing to do. The net effect of those investments is that they put £23m back in to services. It doesn’t replace the income we’ve lost due to austerity, but it helps to save services that would otherwise be cut. Investments always carry risk, so some of the money generated by the investments is put into a reserve. We have also borrowed long-term at fixed rates when interest rates were low. Our investments have performed well, through COVID, the energy crisis and even after the Truss/Kwarteng mini-budget, which crashed the economy.
“Instead of offering plausible alternatives to the way that the administration does things, all we have seen from the Conservatives is the public trashing of our town. They send out press releases littered with errors, they leak confidential documents, they single out local businesses for criticism. We have not heard a positive idea from them, just negativity and moaning. They criticise our regeneration of the town centre with Time Square, they criticise our investment in improving bus services, they criticise our efforts to make Warrington cleaner and greener. This is not good for our town. We deserve better than that. They have done nothing to call for better funding of our local services. Nothing about the crisis in adult social care. Warrington has the 6th lowest funded council in the country – what has Andy Carter MP done about that? In Warrington we pay our taxes, just like everyone else – why do we get so little back from Government?
“It’s almost as if they are trying to distract the public’s attention from their Government’s failings over the last 13 years, which have driven people into poverty whilst the rich have got richer. 13 years of wrecking the country’s economy and destroying our public services.
“The Government recently asked CIPFA to engage with Warrington council and other councils to look at our investments, our capital risk, as always we were happy to engage. We fully agreed with the review and supported it in full. We were recently sent in confidence the draft report, together with a political letter from the Conservative Minister. The Minister sent both in confidence, expressing that they were not to be shared without Government approval. The council has asked for the report to be released as we would like for it to be in the public domain.
“In their latest stunt, the Conservatives are using the leaked political letter (not the draft report) and therefore appearing to accept responsibility for the leak. The council has fully responded to the leaked letter. It would seem that Andy Carter MP has leaked the letter to the Conservative Group, both in breach of a minister’s direction and also in breach of the Nolan principles. The press release is once more littered with inaccuracies which would appear to fall below the standard expected of an elected member.
“Because of the failures and breaches set out above, I call upon Andy Carter MP, and the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group to resign.”
Cllr Balding responded: “The Deputy Leader’s comments are absurd. It is time that she started to take responsibility for the Council’s failings including the high debt.
“I have no idea who leaked the letter from the Local Government Minister and if the Deputy Leader of the Council wishes to criticise press releases for their inaccuracies, then she should be specific.
“I expect to welcome the CIPFA report reviewing “WBC’s debt/investment risk profile” as soon as it is available.
“If the Minister’s letter is anything to go by then I’m sure that the final report will provide much more detail about how to address the risky mess that the Labour leadership has brought us into. WBC Councillors must decide whether they agree with me that this process must start with replacing the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council.”
3 Comments
Well well somebody is annoyed that the Warrington councils controlling Labour council have finally been rumbled.
That’s what you get.when you hold clandestine meetings it blows up in your own faces.
Do the decent thing and resign before you won’t be able to show your faces in public again
There are millions of us up and down the country with “serious concerns” about this Conservative government. The sooner it calls a General Election to allow us to elect a properly functioning national government the better.
There are also quite a few of us who are concerned over the actions of the Conservative government as well our Labour Council. Both have failed the people whose interests they claim to represent.