Opposition Tories call for transparency on council investments while Labour blame brutal Tory austerity

WARRINGTON Conservatives are calling for “complete transparency” from the Labour Administration over the performance of the Council’s £700 m Investment Property Portfolio.

The opposition Tory group on the council is accusing the Labour administration of “hiding” the true performance of the investment portfolio, while the Labour group have hit back at the Tory government’s “brutal austerity,” accusing the Tories of “trashing” the town.

Opposition Tories say Cabinet papers reviewed on the 23rd May in the Property Performance Summary state that, “The portfolio is being re-valued as at 31st March 2023 …. the capital values are very likely to be adversely affected”, This statement follows Officers, at a recent Audit and Corporate Governance Committee Meeting, stating that the value of the Councils investment properties are expected to have fallen by 10% – 15%.

They say the true performance has been “conveniently” hidden in the part two papers of the Cabinet meeting. These part two documents are not made public.
The performance of the this £700 m property portfolio is very much of public interest given the enormous almost £2Bn borrowings of the Council, the Conservative Group are calling for the part two papers relating to these property investments to be made public.

Cllr. Ken Critchley Conservative finance spokesman, commented:This is a Labour lead Council that claims to be Open and Transparent but the dubious use of part two papers to hide the reality of their ill conceived investments, only reinforces the Conservatives Group view that this Labour Council operates in a Closed and Opaque manner.
“The Conservative Group are calling for full disclosure of the performance of this publicly owned property portfolio.
“This Labour led Council has speculated with £700 m of public money, these investments were already making a woeful net return on just over 1%, to now discover that the valuations have fallen by between 10% – 15%, losing somewhere between £70 m and £105 m of their value is another indictment of the disastrous direction the Labour Leadership have chosen for Warrington.
“For the reality of the failure of this strategy to be hidden by the use of part two papers only reinforces the questions. What are the Labour Leadership trying to hide and how bad is the real picture?”
“It time for them to come clean, they are not playing a game of monopoly but instead gambling with the financial security of Warrington””

In response Cllr. Cathy Mitchell – Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet member responsible for Corporate Resources said: “After 13 years of Conservative economic mismanagement, neglect and decline the whole country has had enough of the Tories.
“The Tories have an abysmal record on the economy. They have failed to support the people of Warrington and they have failed to properly invest in our town.
“What the Warrington Conservatives won’t tell you is they cut Government Revenue Support Grant funding from £70 million to less than £2 million per year.
“The Tories pushed cuts on local authorities, they wanted our communities to suffer.
“Labour councillors said no to brutal Tory austerity.
“Labour have protected vital front line services in Warrington. Dedicating more than 70% of our overall budget to vulnerable children and adults.
“Faced with inhumane Tory cuts the Council had to be innovative.
“We found ways to invest in our town centre and support the local economy, we now have the award winning Warrington Market and Time Square, we found ways to build more affordable and sustainable homes on brownfield sites when the Government told us we couldn’t build more council houses, and we found ways to cut the council’s energy bills and carbon emissions by investing in solar farms that now power council buildings.
“As well as the primary policy benefits above, we also get a secondary benefit where our investment portfolio pays for itself. It doesn’t cost the people of Warrington a penny. It actually generates more than £20 million per year in profit. That goes directly into funding vital council services.
“The Tories don’t care about our communities, they peddle conspiracies and constantly talk down our town.
“Labour invests in Warrington, the Tories trash it.”