Tories spend £40m in 10 years and then blame the Credit Crunch for cash crisis
The level of Spelthorne Borough Council reserves is now lower than before the sale of all the Council's housing stock 10 years ago. The Council's finances are now in crisis and all the Conservative Executive can do is blame the Credit Crunch.
The graphs below show how the reserves have been spent in less than 10 years. The Tory plan had been to fill the gap with more asset sales, starting with Bridge Street car park. Now that has fallen through they are at a complete loss as to what to do. The Council budget clearly shows that they were totally reliant on selling more of "the family silver".
Not only has the cash pile been spent, but the Tories have also used up all the interest earned as well, which also amounts to millions of pounds. Because of the way the money has been used, in many cases to bolster current expenditure, there is very little to show for all the money.
The level of capital reserves have declined in much the same way as the total reserves but they will be completely exhausted by the end of 2011 (see below). This means that Spelthorne will have to borrow if it wants to undertake any capital investment.
Liberal Democrat Councillors have repeatedly warned about the risks of the Tory policy to rely on asset sales and to credit all interest received to revenue. Contrary to Tory claims, the Council has never produced a properly balanced budget.
Councillor Lawrence Nichols said "The short-sighted financial policy of the Council over the last 10 years have been cruelly exposed by the Credit Crunch. There is no way that the Conservatives can now claim to be the party of fiscal prudence. The tragedy now is that the Tories will have to try to balance the books by cutting front line services."
All data sourced from Spelthorne Borough Council
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