Council asked for debt plan to prevent destabilising new merged authority
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is being asked how it is tackling £783 million of debt in preparation for councils merging in 2028.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council will be abolished and replaced by one unitary authority in less than two years’ time.
A shadow authority will be created next spring when the three councils plan how to merge services, as well as take on some responsibilities from Staffordshire County Council, which is also being abolished.
Now Graham Shaw, Deputy Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and Cabinet member for Finance, has written to Stoke-on-Trent City Council asking what discussion it has had with Government to reduce its debt and to repay loans, so that the new unitary North Staffordshire council is not financially dysfunctional from the beginning.
He writes:
It would be helpful to understand what discussions have taken place with Government about how these liabilities would be treated and whether additional funding, debt relief, restructuring or transitional support has been sought.
My priority is to ensure that residents in Newcastle-under-Lyme can have confidence that any future authority would be established on a fair, transparent and financially robust basis.”
Saying that residents needed confidence that a new authority would be financially stable and not a burden on them, Cllr Shaw suggested that if Stoke-on-Trent had not made progress so far then they, Newcastle, Staffordshire Moorlands and Staffordshire County Council write jointly to Government to seek support.
Cllr Shaw said:
This would absolve the new authority of debts from existing councils to allow for the best opportunity to start on the right financial footing and to inform the business plan that our officers will need to write in the coming weeks.”