Woking plans to cut funds for care, arts, sports and toilets to plug £1.2bn deficit

Woking council has laid out a drastic package of cuts to local services after its effective bankruptcy earlier this summer, having revealed a £1.2bn deficit racked up from a risky investment spree overseen by its former Tory administration.

Plans include scrapping funding for all of the town’s sports pavilions and toilets, the closure of a swimming pool, cutting resources for parks, the arts, and ending council backing for some community centres, annual concerts, and its involvement in youth sporting events.

The troubled Surrey local authority also proposed scrapping millions of pounds in support for leisure centres, playgrounds and community schemes for young, old and vulnerable residents in an attempt to balance the books. It will launch a consultation on the proposals next month.

In a grim document setting out a wide-ranging austerity programme, it also revealed plans to remove funding for choir and dance classes for residents with Parkinson’s disease, as well as grants for a charity helping domestic abuse survivors, and a community transport scheme.

“It’s horrendous. I think residents were unaware really quite how bad it would be,” said John Bond, a former independent councillor in the authority. “Who will want to come and live in Woking now? It’s going to affect everything, with the vulnerable suffering most.

“There is so much money owing, it’s going to go on for 10 or 20 years. The amounts are mind-boggling.”

The council also said it could not afford to complete a 1,200-home housing development at the Sheerwater estate, a regeneration scheme it is partway through building, and would seek “alternative options” to finish the project.

As one of a growing number of English local authorities in financial distress, Woking issued a section 114 notice in June, signalling that it lacked the resources to balance its budget.

Birmingham city council, the largest local authority in the country, became the latest to issue such a notice this week, blaming a £760m bill for equal pay claims, problems installing a new IT system and £1bn in government cuts over the past decade.

Senior Tories have attempted to capitalise on the Labour-run authority’s meltdown, with the party chair, Greg Hands, suggesting it showed Keir Starmer’s party could not be trusted with the national finances.

However, councils from across the political divide are increasingly sounding the alarm over their finances, after years of cuts to central government funding, soaring inflation, and rising demand amid the cost of living crisis.

Others to issue section 114 notices in the past couple of years include Conservative-run Northamptonshire and Thurrock, alongside Labour-run Slough and Nottingham. At least 26 English local authorities are thought to be at risk of issuing a section 114 notice within the next two years.

Woking’s troubles stem from a programme of commercial investments and regeneration schemes involving hotels and skyscrapers, after racking up debts of £1.8bn – more than 100 times its annual £16m of core funding from council tax, government grants and other income.

The council’s Liberal Democrat leadership have blamed the previous Conservative administration, which they ousted last year, for borrowing billions of pounds to fund risky schemes, including a complex of sky-high towers in the town centre – standing as the tallest buildings outside a big city in England – with a four-star Hilton hotel, public plazas, parking facilities and shops.

With debts in excess of £1.8bn, the council said on Wednesday it faced interest charges of £68m for next year.

In documents published before a crunch meeting next week setting out the council’s medium-term financial plan, Woking said the scale of its troubles meant it still expected an £11m shortfall in its budget for 2024-25.

The council said it was in talks with the government to explore the prospect of a package of financial support.