A £2.4 million profit dividend payment from the Council’s own solar farm investments is to be paid to Warrington Borough Council.
Members of the Cabinet approved the dividend which is in addition to a wider £23m in revenue generated from council investments, all of which will go towards protecting vital front-line services, including social care.
Warrington Borough Council invested in its own solar farms to reduce its carbon footprint and to power council buildings, creating savings for the council on its energy costs and reducing its organisational impact on the environment.
In 2022, Warrington Borough Council became the first local authority in the UK to generate all its own electricity, addressing one of the council’s policy objectives to tackle the climate emergency.
The £2.4 million profit dividend is additional to the wider £23 million in revenue generated from the council’s investments, all of which go towards protecting vital services, including those for vulnerable children and adults.
The Council has faced more than £200m in cuts from central Government since 2010, the equivalent of almost £2,155 per household. Warrington Borough Council will be required to make an additional £13m in cuts this year alone.
As a result, the council says it has been forced to find innovative solutions to policy problems and shrinking revenue budgets.
More than 70% of the council’s £157m budget is earmarked for vulnerable children services and adult social care.
Cllr Cathy Mitchell
Cllr Cathy Mitchell, Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources said: “I’m pleased to announce that our investment portfolio continues to perform well, despite what the people peddling fake news say.
“Our investment portfolio provides a net return; that means it generates a surplus after all costs and interest payments have been paid.
“Just like investing in solar panels for your own roof, the council’s own solar farms help to power the buildings we own, such as council offices, and they generate additional revenue for what we don’t use.
“The council’s solar farms address one of our key policy objectives by helping us to reduce our carbon footprint and tackle the climate emergency.”
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4 Comments
I think many people would like to see the actual numbers on these claims.
What overall profit did the solar farm make?
How much if that came from the increase in energy prices caused by the global increase?
What was the total amount of electricity used by WBC and over what period?
The claim that WBC generated all its own electricity is a spurious one when there is no way of proving this.
All electricity generated from all source goes into one big pot.
Do WBC have their own cables from the solar farm direct to the Town Hall?
Maybe they ask the travelling community to pick it up as they drive past and bring it to Warrington? Hence the increasing numbers of encampments?
Hi Gary, thanks for posting this. I know that you take journalism seriously, so I have confidence that you will have seen at least some documentary evidence.
What’s missing, however, is the bigger picture. How much have we invested in solar farms and how much have we spent in addition to those investments on related services? How many dividends have we received by year? How are the other investments in the portfolio doing?
Cherry picking one investment out of dozens isn’t acceptable practice. If any finance director had tried this in any of the businesses I’ve worked in they’d have been out pretty smartly.
Cllr Mitchell who is peddling fake news?
Excellent news. Look forward to the accounts being signed off and the figures from all the investments (not just one) being published in full so we can all see the peddlers of fake news proved wrong once and for all. Until such point, rubies and speculation will flourish…