Hillingdon’s Conservative Council forced to admit they have left finances in tatters

Hillingdon’s Conservative-run Council have, for the second time, had to make a humiliating call to the Government to ask for a financial bailout.

Following the £25million granted by the Government in 2022 to rescue our Council’s finances, a new report exposes that even after taking money from the reserves, there will still be a shortfall of £16.4million this year alone.

The latest report to our Council’s Conservative Cabinet blames underfunding by central Government. Local campaigner and Lib Dem spokesman Tom Cottew said “But these have been Conservative Governments run by Boris Johnson and his friends over several years.”

“They also claim the costs of supporting asylum seekers is a substantial contributing factor which is largely down to the Conservatives’ failure to control our borders since Brexit,” Tom Cottew added.

The council reports that they have “uncovered a number of accounting errors or assumptions going back as far as 2013/14” that are “very problematic” and need to be put right.  For years our Conservative Councillors have boasted about their good financial management and high balances. They have now shown that is not justified. The council also has a debt of nearly £66million arising from years of Conservative Governments not providing enough money for special needs in education.

Tom Cottew concluded, “The Council’s financial planning appears to have been built on foundations of sand. We are all going to pay very dearly for the resulting subsidence, especially pensioners and the less well-off.”