Thurrock Council leader resigns as government steps in

The council's Conservative leader Rob Gledhill has resigned and said the "political buck stops with me"

The government has appointed a commissioner to take over a Tory-run unitary council due to its level of financial risk and debt.

Rob Gledhill, leader of Thurrock Council in Essex, has resigned, saying "the political buck stops with me".

Essex County Council will take on the commissioner role, lead the intervention and inspection, and sign off big decisions.

Local Government Secretary Greg Clark said the move was "necessary".

"I strongly believe that when a council gets into difficulties, its local government neighbours should be the preferred source of help in turning it around," he said.

"I know that Essex County Council possesses the expertise and ability to help."

Greg Clark said "given the serious financial situation and its potential impact on local services, I believe it is necessary for government to intervene"

The BBC understands there are serious concerns about the level of financial risk and debt the authority has incurred.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been looking into the council's finances for three years.

Thurrock has borrowed about £1bn and invested hundreds of millions of pounds largely in solar energy.

Concerns have been raised about the level of debt the authority has, payments the council has to make servicing the debt, and the income it receives.

Mr Gledhill, who has led the council for seven years, said: "Whilst I welcome this news and the support from Her Majesty's Government it has become clear over the past few months that the situation regarding council investments, and subsequently its finances, has not been as reported.

"As leader of the council, the political buck stops with me and as such it would only be right, and expected, that I resign as leader of the council."

Members of the county council's finance team will sit alongside Thurrock's.

Mr Gledhill - pictured with Thurrock Council's chief executive Lyn Carpenter - said he welcomed news of the government's intervention

The leader of the opposition Labour group at Thurrock Council, John Kent, said: "It was inevitable - we've been warning for over two years that the borrowing investment strategy that the Conservatives were undertaking has been frankly reckless, gambling on the sunshine, borrowing approaching £1.5bn to invest mainly in solar energy.

"And it's not as if they've invested in solar energy by buying solar farms, what they've actually done is lent the money to somebody else to buy the solar farms.

"I wrote to the secretary of state back on 16 July asking for intervention and I'm glad that it's happening now."

The council issued a statement saying it was "grateful to the government for the support they have given us and welcome the action to instigate intervention and provide additional assistance".

It added: "Thurrock Council is treating this situation extremely seriously and has been working with the government in recent weeks, as well as independent financial and legal experts to fully understand how the situation has arisen and establish a comprehensive resolution plan to safeguard the council's financial position.

"The council will co-operate fully with the appointed commissioners to work to protect the interests of, and services for, the people of Thurrock."

Analysis: 'Failure of the authority'

This is a huge move by the government. To intervene and appoint someone else to oversee and control a council's finances is not taken lightly.

The government's letter to Lyn Carpenter, Thurrock Council's chief executive, mentions "the failure of the authority" to address the concerns ministers have over Thurrock's finances and about the "scale of the financial and commercial risks potentially facing your authority, which are compounded by the authority's approach to financial management".

Concerns had been raised over the past few years about the council's finances and debt, caused by borrowing more than £1bn and investing in renewable energy.

Opposition councillors had written to the local government secretary, at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, raising serious concerns and about the transparency of the Conservative-run authority.

Relations between Thurrock and Essex County Council councillors are not good.

Thurrock's Conservatives have looked to London authorities and neighbouring Essex districts to work with and have been critical about the county council.

It will be a bitter blow that their county neighbours will now have oversight of their big decisions.

This is not the first time councils have had outside commissioners come in to deal with financial failures.

Essex County Council's chief executive Gavin Jones has been spending two to three days a week overseeing the unitary Slough Borough Council after it declared bankruptcy last year.

The leader of Conservative-run Essex County Council, Kevin Bentley, said the county council had "a track record of providing help, support and advice to other councils in times of difficulty".

"Working alongside Thurrock colleagues and utilising Essex County Council's strong financial expertise and performance, I hope that we can soon begin to see Thurrock Council take positive steps forward," he added.

The two councils will prepare an improvement plan within the first three months of the intervention and are expected to provide a best value inspection report to Mr Clark within the same timeframe.

The best value inspection will look at the governance, internal and external audit, risk management, overview and scrutiny functions of the council.

The intervention is expected to start next week.

Thurrock Council

• Thurrock lies east of Greater London on the Thames Estuary

• Its main industries include oil and gas terminals that have recently attracted Just Stop Oil protesters

• It is the home of the Thames Gateway and Tilbury ports

• HMT Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury with workers from the Caribbean in 1948

• It consists of towns such as Corringham, Grays, Purfleet-on-Thames and Tilbury, alongside rural villages

• The council became a unitary authority in 1998, separate from Essex County Council

• It is made up of 30 Conservative councillors, 14 Labour councillors, three Thurrock Independents and two independents

Source: Thurrock Council

Correction 21 September: This article was edited to reflect that Thurrock has oil terminals not oil refineries.

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