An internal audit of Oldham Council has revealed a sharp and unexplained rise in staff mileage expenses since the pandemic, despite the widespread adoption of video conferencing and remote working tools.
Mileage expenditure fell to just £8,919.45 in 2020/21 during Covid restrictions, but has since climbed dramatically, reaching £221,108.49 in 2025/26 and peaking at £222,019.35 in 2023/24.
Notably, both the number and value of claims now exceed pre-pandemic 2019/20 levels, when the council spent £132,654.21 on 392 claims, compared with 612 claims in 2025/26.
Since 2019/20, the council has paid out more than £1.1m in mileage costs across 3,404 claims.
Auditors said the reasons behind the increase are ‘unclear’ and criticised a lack of routine monitoring of high-mileage staff or unusual travel patterns.
No value-for-money assessment against public transport costs, nor benchmarking against other authorities, has been carried out.
The report recommends a review of mileage by service area, taking into account home working and remote meeting technology.
A spokesperson for the council said the review made no ‘suggestion of misuse’ and had ‘identified areas where processes and oversight can be strengthened, and work is already underway to act on these findings’.
