News

Leaders of Walsall council were summoned by local government minister Nick Raynsford to explain how they will address ``deep-seated failings``, following a damning Audit Commission report, writes Jonathan Pearce.

The findings of the corporate governance inspection reveal that there are significant weaknesses across the council. It is plagued by financial problems, poor service delivery, lacks political leadership, has poor internal and external communications, and there are instances of unacceptable conduct on the part of councillors, says the report.

Audit Commission controller Sir Andrew Foster said: "Walsall Council has failed local people. The council has considerable political and financial problems resulting in poorly run services and wasted taxpayers’ money.

"Although the commission repeatedly highlighted these problems during the inspection process and in earlier audit reports, we do not believe the council fully accepts the gravity of the situation," he said.

The commission has set up a supervisory board to help the council, comprising local government, finance and legal experts, which is the first time such an approach has been used to deal with a failing council.

The board will monitor the council’s implementation of an improvement strategy, and could at any time advise the commission to refer the council for statutory intervention by the government.

The main concerns raised by the report included the council’s poor financial management, which goes from one short-term crisis to another. Over-spending is uncontrolled with unrealistic budgets set too late and serious inaccuracies in the figures, says the report.

In addition, management and political roles are not sufficiently defined and relationships between the two are not properly managed. The council is weak at developing partnerships, and although there are pockets of good practice in service delivery, this practice was rarely extended across the council.

* It also understood that the council is currently considering a draft of a highly critical Audit Commission report into its social services department, which says the department kept back the full extent of its financial deficit from the council.

Local government secretary Stephen Byers is expected to announce £25 million funding to bail out Hackney council so that it can meet the terms of a revised budget agreed last year, following statutory directions issued under government intervention powers.