I was grateful to my colleague David Simmons, the Member of Parliament for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, for raising the urgent concerns around the section 114 legal notice that halted all non-statutory expenditure in the London borough of Croydon, the first in the capital in 20 years.
A section 114 notice starts off as a sign of cash flow distress in a council. Income is insufficient for planned expenditure, so services have to be cut and expenditure halted until the budget is balanced again.
Many residents in Carshalton and Wallington are worried about the financial situation in Croydon, given that the London Borough of Sutton sits directly next to the London Borough of Croydon.
During the debate, David mentioned the council’s housing development arm. I know that locally the concern is that the huge amount of money that has been wasted does not seem to be accepted by the council administration itself, and I made clear that the first step to recovery for Croydon will have to be the administration acknowledging the mistakes that were made in getting it to this point.
As David highlighted, "there is an absolutely critical need for the assurance in other local authorities—not just Hillingdon and Harrow but Sutton and elsewhere—that a closer degree of attention is being paid to the finances."
You can watch my contribution above, or you can read a transcript of the entire debate here.