Spelthorne Borough Council has been thrown into chaos as its leader Ian Harvey, the man who drove a heavily criticised £1bn spending spree on commercial property investments, all funded by borrowed money, was deposed by a meeting of the council's Conservative group.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that both Harvey and Spelthorne Borough Council "repeatedly dismissed criticism of the policy" despite being "publicly criticised at a recent parliamentary committee hearing." In May 2020 the government said that it would "ban local authorities from following its example and investing in commercial property."
In its coverage, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that Spelthorne Borough Council's financial strategy had resulted in it "becoming reliant on rental income to fund services, despite the £1bn in borrowing generating a net return of less than 1%."
The Bureau has previously reported how the council had borrowed "the equivalent of nearly 50 times its spending power from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) to amass a portfolio of office spaces in Surrey and the Thames Valley, as part of an attempt to become self-sufficient," and that KPMG, Spelthorne Borough Council's auditors, had revealed “significant weaknesses in the £385m purchase of a BP research centre in Sunbury."
Read the full story from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.