The Impact of West Suffolk Council's £200M Debt on Local Residents

In this video, we delve into the financial struggles of West Suffolk council, as they find themselves in a staggering £200M debt. But what does this mean for the community?

[eliakimjosephsophia]

The interest must be huge on that amount of money, I still don't get it, why they think they have the authority to run up so much debt for their projects that the people didn't give their approval for. We didn't approve the debt, we didn't approve the projects. Yet, the people suffer the consequences.

[stevenchandler]

Thanks for posting this video kris, it doesn't help with council's being an over bloated and subscribed system, and evedently from all the money collected from council tax in individual areas only 30% finds it's way back from the government

[Brucelmighty]

I’m over 50 y/o and I’ve NEVER heard any council holding any councillor or group of councillors responsible for financial mismanagement. Ever. One thing that needs to change is the ability of councils to accept funding from the government. Government funding always comes with strings attached. Another thing is banning councils from making investments in projects with council tax funds outside the scope of providing services to the council tax payers. This seems to be the main cause of the huge debt of those councils in debt. Why do councillors think they are hedge fund managers? They are not Gordon Gekko and need to stop behaving as if they are. Thanks Kris 👍🏻

[ginashiel]

Send a memo to Sunak to stop giving away tax payers money to the Ukraine, France and sure that money would help local councils...

[clarestevens]

Plymouth City Council hasn’t had a financial audit since 2019 / 2020 as the covid emergency was brought in and they’ve become unaccountable and now they’ve brought in the climate emergency they still don’t have to declare it 🤷‍♀️ so how can we keep a close eye or can we ask questions through a Freedom of Information request?? Xx

[YllaStar]

They should rename as Waste Suffolk Council.👍

[williammore]

I believe there needs a law to govern how councils manage their finances. We cannot have a situation where councils go bankrupt because of poor fiscal management or corrupt practices that end up local residents paying for something they never approved of or agreed to. The law must have the ability to hold those councillors to account, otherwise, the councillors will have so much power that they are totally out of control.

[xana]

Do they do audit to the council in your country? Some ones have to go to prison for the misuse of budget money 🤨

[tendogsdonie]

Wokeism?
Unelected rishie sunak identifys as our prime minister, selected not elected,

[West_Suffolk_Council]

This video is factually incorrect and if you read the media story our external borrowing level is at around £9m. We are prudent in both our borrowing and our reasons for it. Our debt levels are low compared to many other councils and are being managed in a careful and responsible manner. In terms of why we borrow, it is worth reiterating that less than a fifth of the costs it takes for West Suffolk Council to deliver our services to our communities are met through council tax. So, there are times when we need to raise funds to further invest in our communities to deliver economic or social benefits and in some cases to also deliver new income streams to further sustain and improve those services we deliver. And there are times when prudent and responsible borrowing is absolutely the right way to achieve those goals.