EY confirm their Financial Review is not an endorsement of Woking Council finances

Woking highlighted as third highest borrowed Council in the country

On Monday, Woking Council's Scrutiny Committee received a Financial Review carried out by EY. Liberal Democrats on the committee explored EY'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.

EY confirmed, in response to a question from Cllr Adam Kirby, that their review is not an endorsement. "Rather it is an objective summary of Woking Council's financial data, not a summary of whether it is good or not" said the EY representative.

"As I pointed out last week this is at odds with the Conservative assertion¹ that the review gave a positive view of council finances" highlights local Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Ann-Marie Barker.

The report does confirm the extraordinarily high levels of long-term borrowing (£1.84 Billion) by the Conservative led Council. This equates to £47,000 for every household in Woking. making WBC the third highest borrowed council in the UK.

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 February the 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 £94m.

Scrutiny Chair, Cllr James Sanderson, set out a series of recommendations to the Council's Executive Committee, including the need for appropriate specialist resource and a full review of the operation of Council owned companies.