Earlier this week, Woking Borough Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee received a financial review of the Council carried out by Ernst and Young.

My Lib Dem colleagues on the Committee explored the report’s findings with key questions on the status of the review, asset valuations, the viability of Council companies, ability to pay back loans, availability of reserves and whether the Council requires more specialists to run its property empire.

Ernst and Young confirmed that their report is not an endorsement of the Borough Council’s finances – rather it is an objective summary of the Council’s financial data, not a summary whether it is good or not.  This is despite the Conservative administration’s claim that the review gave a positive view of the Council’s finances.

The report does confirm the extraordinarily high levels of long-term borrowing – namely £1.9 billion by the Tory led Council, as it stood at March 2021 when accounts were last compiled.  This equates to £48,000 for every household in Woking, making Woking Council the highest borrowed local authority in the country.  Since then Woking’s debt has grown by over £400 million within six months and now approaching £2 billion.

The report also confirms the current level of gross interest payable is 135% of net service expenditure whilst the UK average is 3.4%.  Another league table that emphasises the high risks being undertaken by Woking Council, using public money.

These mortgage style repayments will soon rise to a minimum of £60m every year, for each of the next 50 years – and there is more to come: last year, the Borough Council agreed to spend another £1 billion on capital projects which will take the borrowing to an eye watering £3 billion requiring annual repayments of £94 million.