In-debt council approves 8% tax rise and cuts

Thurrock Council leader Andrew Jefferies confirmed the authority's overall debt had been reduced from £1.5bn to £434m

A local authority that is effectively bankrupt has passed a budget that will increase council tax by 8% from April.

The 2024-25 budget from Thurrock Council in Essex also outlined £20m in savings while councillors have shelved some major infrastructure projects.

Conservative leader Andrew Jefferies said there were "difficult decisions to take".

Labour opposition leader John Kent said he was "really disappointed" and described the budget as a "kick in the teeth" for residents.

Mr Jefferies said: “It’s been a tough budget to set, there have been some difficult decisions to take.

"This budget does protect the most vulnerable in our communities. It ensures that children’s and adult social care gets the funding it needs."

'Severe repercussions'

Government-appointed commissioners took control of major decisions at Thurrock Council in 2022 after a series of failed investments in solar farms.

The authority effectively declared itself bankrupt after it amassed debts - at their worst - of £1.5bn.

The council increased taxes by 9.99% last year and the government once again gave Thurrock permission to go up by as much as 10% for the coming 12 months.

Councillors also voted to scrap, or put on hold, plans for a new medical centre in Tilbury; a railway underpass in Grays; slip roads on the A13 near Lakeside shopping centre and 500 new council-owned properties.

The budget papers revealed plans to demolish the Blackshots Towers and build new social housing would only go ahead with "special dispensations on borrowing" from government.

The council maintains about 10,000 properties in the borough.

About £36m in property assets need to be sold during the next year by the council but Mr Jefferies said "I'm hoping that we will be able to keep all those houses".

The Conservatives have a majority of just one in the council chamber, but because Labour abstained, the budget was approved even though two Tories and three independents voted against.

Mr Kent said Labour did not vote the budget down because “the repercussions" would have been "severe".

"The government could have stepped in and enforced an even higher council tax increase and deeper intervention," he added.

He criticised the "scrapping" of the council's hardship fund for people struggling with the cost of living, new charges for "special needs kids to go to college" and the "£80 charge to take garden waste away".

John Kent said if Labour had voted down the Conservative budget there would have been "severe" repercussions

Thurrock Council has reduced its overall debt from £1.5bn to £434m.

Its shares in solar farms were sold for £700m in January and Thurrock Council expected to receive £529m of that money.

Mr Jefferies pointed out there were "various things" to pay for as part of the transaction and added: "I don’t shy away from the fact that I would have loved to have kept the whole lot to pay off the debt, but you can’t."

The council originally invested £655m in solar with the collapsed firm Toucan Energy.