Council in almost £200m debt
Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter
Pembrokeshire County Council has debts of nearly £200m, amounting to more than £1,500 a person, BBC research has said.
For more than a decade, town hall chiefs across the UK have been encouraged to borrow funds to invest in local schemes and commercial properties.
But after recent high-profile failures and with their combined debt level UK-wide now standing at £97.8bn there are fears that many authorities will go bust.
Not an isolated case
BBC Shared Data Unit analysis of data by the Department for Levelling Up shows UK councils owe a combined £97.8bn to lenders, equivalent to £1,141 per resident, as of September 2023.
Taking into account all types of local authorities, such as police and crime commissioners and combined authorities, the debt pile rises to £122bn.
Based on the figures analysed by the BBC Shared Data Unit, Pembrokeshire has the 14th highest level of council debt per person in Wales, and the 100thhighest in the UK; neighbouring Ceredigion in 15th and 104th place respectively, while Carmarthenshire occupies sixth and 59th positions.
Pembrokeshire, with a population of 123,669, had a total amassed debt of £192,064,000, or £1,553 per person.
Ceredigion, population 70,658, had a total amassed debt of £106,867,000, or £1,512 per person; Carmarthenshire (population 188,191) had a total debt of £402,424,000, or £2,138 per person.
All financial data refers to quarter two of the 2023-’24 financial years.
Encouragement
The Wales total (population 3,105,410) was £5,684,341,000; with Swansea the highest and Bridgend the lowest of the 22 authorities.
For the past decade, councils UK-wide have been encouraged to make commercial investments to provide an alternative source of income aside from the usual mix of grants, council tax, rates and fees and charges.
Town halls across the country have bought hundreds of commercial assets, from shopping centres, to office parks, cinemas, energy companies and housing developments.
But council leaders, who have seen government grant funding reduce by 40 per cent in real terms since 2010, have had to borrow increasing amounts to pay for those investments.
In recent years, various commentators have warned that the debts held by councils – which must balance their budgets every year – are unsustainable. In 2020, chair of the Public Accounts Committee Dame Meg Hillier said the Government was “blind to the extreme risks” of council borrowing levels.
Pembrokeshire County Council has declined to comment on the BBC figures.
Ceredigion has been approached to comment.
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Another Welsh council run by incompetents bordering criminal negligence, who will just blame all their failures on everyone else.
That’s what the Tories would have you believe… the real reason, of course, is that central government funding for local councils in the UK has been cut by 27% since 2010*.
*Source: https://www.local.gov.uk/about/campaigns/save-local-services/save-local-services-council-pressures-explained
Is Pembrokeshire council Tory? You can’t blame the Conservatives for this council borrowing money it can’t pay back on stupid vanity projects and free stuff for the terminally unemployed.
No, it mostly independents, labour and Tory are 10 each
It’s true there has been a cut, but they’ve known about it, and some councils haven’t had the business acumen to manage it properly. I might be wrong but all the councils that seem to be in dire straights are run by labour. It’s only after they go bankrupt do they start to cull jobs and fix their incompetence. I bet every year they’ve given themselves a pay rise too. I do think councils should be investigated by an independent auditor. Look at Caerphilly council weren’t all the execs giving themselves crazy pay rises. Nothing criminal came from it, perhaps… Read more »
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This is perhaps another reason not to endorse independence. If a single council can fall £200 million into the red, just think what those geeks in Cardiff could achieve? Most of Wales’ money comes from Westminster. If we we’re ever a independent Nation that debt would probably cripple us. Don’t allow your council to borrow millions and make YOU pay for their incompetence.
Birmingham is bust as are many other english councils.This is due to austerity over the last 14 yrs imposed by the Tories in Westminster The same in Wales the cuts to the block grants run into a quarter of the budget.
Do you know how much the National Debt of the UK is?
Little wonder councils are struggling given tory austerity over the past 13 years. The cuts have been widespread and deep to the extent that UK infrastructure cannot function. From councils to the police to the NHS to prescription drugs etc nothing works. Tory incompetence, greed and corruption is a wrecking ball to the lives of ordinary people
So easy to blame others for your own short comings! You only have to look at the £30mill+ spent on the ill judged 20 mph speed limits and its £90mill+ hit on the economy to see how the local population is being hit!
Remember….The consequences of your actions are your responsibility!
Wales a country of paupers, and not likely to get any better until we get rid of the Senedd.