oh goody proper incompetence!

[vetran]

https://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/new...debt-revealed/

THE HUGE scale of Slough Borough Council’s debt it has amassed has been revealed, as it equates to almost £3,000 per resident.

It comes as the council is about to raise council tax by 8.5 per cent this year as government commissioners continue to scrutinise the borough’s finances.

The stark debt situation has been highlighted in a nationwide report by the BBC Shared Data Unit.

It showed that Slough Borough Council was £430 million in debt in Quarter 2 of the 2023/24 financial year.

That is the 69th highest amount of debt by an authority in the country.

READ MORE: Debt-ridden Slough Borough Council not making enough financial progress, says government

It also means that the amount of debt per person in Slough was £2,717, as the borough has a population of 158,289.

brace yourself!

[woody1]

This is happening with Councils all over the country. Some are effectively bankrupt. Services are having to be slashed.

Expect the roads to go to pot (if they haven't already done so like where we are).

[Snooky]

Could be worse - apparently Birmingham City Council is raising Council Tax by 21%, as well as slashing services to fund their utter incompetence.

[edison]

Birmingham's woes are primarily the result of the equal pay court case they lost on paying women lower wages than they should have been getting. That will eventually cost them a staggering £1.8B.

Many financially well run councils will be struggling soon, irrespective of party.

Given the ever increasing demand for councils to provide social care whilst costs rise and income doesn't keep up, I'm anticipating many councils will only be able to provide statutory services within a decade or two unless their funding structure radically changes.

[WTFH]

I see that part of the budget was to take more money away from councils (didn't make the headlines in many papers, for obvious reasons)

[SueEllen]

I see that part of the budget was to take more money away from councils (didn't make the headlines in many papers, for obvious reasons)

They need to do better with providing more with less money from the government.

Was it Cameron's mum who complained to the local council,?

[hobnob]

Birmingham's woes are primarily the result of the equal pay court case they lost on paying women lower wages than they should have been getting.

There's a bit more to it than that:
How Birmingham city council’s ‘equal pay’ bankruptcy provided cover for ongoing Oracle IT disaster (theconversation.com)

It's worth reading the whole article, but here's a snippet:

None of the in-year deficit cited in the section 114 notice relates to the settlement of new equal pay claims. And none of the £149 million of cuts to services relate to any deficit created by equal pay settlements.

Instead, the council’s spiralling deficit, estimated at more than £300 million, appears to relate to the disastrous launch of the Oracle IT system that went live in April 2022. Originally budgeted at £40 million, the latest report by the head of financial planning to the cabinet on February 27 2024 showed that the Oracle finance and human resources system has now run to an astonishing £131 million.