It has been announced today (Oct 29) that the Government will conduct a “rapid non-statutory review! into Croydon Council.
The review will focus on the overall governance, culture and risk management of the Council, which has been called in to question by a Public Interest Report published last week by Grant Thornton.
This short term, informal review does not rule out a longer-term, formal statutory intervention – the results of this review will determine whether that is needed.
Local Government Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:
“The situation at the London Borough of Croydon is deeply concerning and completely unacceptable – local people rightly deserve and expect better than this from their local council leaders.
“The Public Interest Report published this week is damming about the dysfunctional governance within Croydon Council, who have been entirely irresponsible with their spending and investments. There are serious questions that local leaders to answer, and we are stepping in to get the situation under control.”
Croydon Council has been allocated over £23.5 million in un-ringfenced funding since the start of the pandemic. In addition to this, the council’s core spending power saw an increase of nearly £20.8 million this financial year even before additional emergency funding was announced.
Chris Wood has been confirmed to be leading the review; the other 2 reviewers are yet to be announced.
