Heather Jameson 25 May 2023

Government steps in at Woking after huge debts revealed

Secretary of state Michael Gove has demanded an intervention in Working BC begin immediately after the scale of its financial problems emerged.

The council has been branded the ‘most indebted’ council in the country, with debts to the tune of £1.9bn on a net budget of £24m, tied up in regeneration schemes and commercial investments.

In a departmental letter to Woking chief executive Julie Fisher, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) official Suzanne Clarke said: ‘There is a pressing case for urgent government action.’

That action included a five-year intervention covering all the finances of the council; regeneration and commercial issues; governance, transparency and strategic decision making; and hiring and firing senior officers.

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