merridew , 1 year ago

You can only starve a government body of funding – making it muddle along depleting its reserves and selling off assets – for so long until a final bill tips it over the edge, so I’d argue that if it wasn’t this bill it would be another bill.

Other councils took risky approaches to replace money cut under Austerity:

Woking said that against its available core funding of £16m in the 2023-24 financial year, the council faced a deficit of £1.2bn.

Racked up to finance the building and acquisition of a vast empire of commercial assets, its investments included a complex of sky-high towers – standing as the tallest buildings outside a big city in England – including a four-star Hilton hotel, public plazas, parking facilities and shops.

Many councils piled into property and other commercial enterprises to raise money to fill gaping holes in their budgets and to undertake regeneration projects after sharp cuts to central government funding introduced under the Conservatives’ austerity drive.

theguardian.com/…/woking-council-declares-bankrup…