Councillors react to Government intervention as Spelthorne Borough Council looks to manage crippling debt

The government announced on March 17 commissioners could be brought in to supervise Spelthorne council as inspectors found it was failing in its ‘best value’ duty to residents.

The local authority is strapped with over £1bn of debt, making it the second highest level of debt for a district or borough council in the country after Woking.

The current administration blames it all on historical debt from the previous Conservative group.

“It does my head in that there’s no accountability,” said Councillor Harry Boparai.

He said he was fed up with “the guilty always walking off into the sunset” and residents having to suffer the consequences.

“If you want to gamble, do it with your own money and not residents’,” said the Liberal Democrat member for Sunbury Common.

He lamented that millions of pounds could have been invested into the community rather than Spelthorne’s projects.

“We’re a council not a property investor,” he said.

Between 2016 and 2018, Spelthorne Borough Council borrowed around £1 billion to invest in a commercial portfolio of Grade A office buildings and residential land in and around the borough.

A strategy the inspectors said lacked long-term planning and risk management with an “overly optimistic” view of the market.

The new coalition administration took over in May 2023.

Cllr Jon Button, Labour group leader on Spelthorne Council said: “It has been apparent for a while that the council was in trouble with its investment properties.

“My Labour group has consistently opposed these purchases and the reckless use of residents’ money.”

“We have voiced our concerns about this misuse of council tax in numerous local election campaigns.

“Spelthorne Conservatives and their local MP have played footloose and fancy free with the council budget, but have now been found out,” added Cllr Button.

But Cllr Daren Clarke slammed the idea that Spelthorne is going bust and claimed the council is just “panicking”.

He said the council seems to be doing a “fire sale” of properties to manage the debt such as Ashford Victory Place and the Summit Centre.

Defending the party’s reputation, Cllr Clarke said the coalition administration disrupted the Conservative’s plan to buy commercial properties to increase and maintain income, and then blame it for not working.

He said hundreds of people are still on the housing list which could have been eased if Spelthorne had gone through the property development process.

But best value inspectors also concluded the “relationships between political leadership and senior management are strained, continuing to hinder effective decision-making”.

Although the report highlighted property acquisitions had lacked adequate long-term planning and risk management it also points at a “culture of distrust” between councillors and officers and that the relationship had “broken down”.

In a statement on the council’s website, Leader of Spelthorne Borough Council, Cllr Joanne Sexton, said: “This Group Administration has faced a challenging time and has been actively pursuing the right solution to manage the historical debt that it has inherited.

“Our pledge remains that we will always put residents at the heart of everything we do.”

She said the council has agreed to work in partnership with central government and take “an active approach” to reducing debt before local government reorganisation.

John Boughtflower, leader of the Conservatives, said he will wait for the commissioners to come in and understand what their role is.

The member for Shepperton Town added he is still considering the report.

The Green Party leader declined to comment as he had not yet read the document.