RBWM’s Financial Crisis: Time to Focus on Recovery

Liberal Democrat run RBWM has published a detailed summary report on its historic financial governance failures, following years of underfunding, poor oversight, and ballooning debt under the Conservatives

The report draws together findings from two independent reviews by CIPFA (the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) and external auditors Grant Thornton, revealing that the council’s financial resilience was severely compromised by a decade of council tax cuts, weak governance, and unrealistic budgeting.

Speaking about these historic issues, Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee, Cllr Julian Tisi (LD) said,

“When we took power in 2023, external audits were 3 years overdue.  Worse than that was the failure to complete balance sheet reconciliations, which allowed errors to go undetected and which masked the Council’s true financial position.”

The report confirms that while the financial decisions were taken lawfully, they led to a structural funding deficit, depleted reserves, and a hollowing out of services. It also outlines the discovery of £30.2 million in balance sheet errors in 2023, which triggered the current crisis and forced the council to seek Exceptional Financial Support from the government.

Cllr Lynne Jones (Ind), Finance Lead said

"This report confirms what many of us have long suspected — that the financial crisis was not caused by fraud, but by a series of lawful yet damaging policy choices.”

She continued, 

“Accountability lies at the ballot box. The decisions were lawful, but the consequences have been severe - and the public deserves transparency.”

During the Full Council debate on Tuesday, Conservative councillors continued to demonstrate their lack of grip over the finances and poor meeting preparation by not appearing to have even read the report correctly. 

Despite the severity of the issues, the report recommends against launching a further investigation, citing the completeness of the existing reviews, the absence of fraud, and the urgent need to focus on financial recovery. It warns that any new inquiry would be costly, potentially disruptive, and unlikely to yield any new information.

Cllr Mark Wilson, Lead Member for Corporate Services (LD)  said,

“We have picked up the pieces, cleaned out the cupboards, and developed a plan to fix the mess. Our plan has been repeatedly independently approved, we are on the right track on our journey to restore council services and make RBWM a council we can all be proud of.”

In the meantime, the administration continues to work hard to fix the mess. 

Read the full report here