Intervention at Woking Borough Council
This page collates all the publications relating to the External Assurance Review carried out into Woking Borough Council and the subsequent intervention.
In January 2023 the department commissioned an External Assurance Review covering Woking Borough Council’s governance, finance and commercial issues, following concerns raised from engagement with the council since May 2022. This review was carried out by Jim Taylor, Carol Culley OBE and Mervyn Greer, with initial fieldwork taking place over January and February. The review team was asked to provide an external assessment of the Council’s governance arrangements, financial situation, commercial investments and their capacity and capability to manage these in the immediate and longer-term.
The Council made the department aware of further developments in their commercial and finance arrangements in April 2023, following which the department requested that the review team undertake further fieldwork in April and May. The resulting report reflects all review work undertaken from January to May 2023.
After careful consideration of the report and Woking’s engagement with the department, the Secretary of State was not satisfied that the pace or scale of the council’s response was proportionate to the issues it faces and decided that Woking Borough Council requires immediate urgent government action. On 25 May 2023 he decided that he was using his powers under the Local Government Act 1999 to intervene at the council and appointed the review team as Commissioners.
The department also wrote to the council on 25 May 2023, to provide detail on the intervention package, and published the External Assurance Review.
On 19 October 2023, the department published the first report from the Commissioners (received 31 August), the progress update from the council and Minister Rowley’s response to the Commissioners. In their report, the Commissioners describe the gravity of the situation in Woking and the scale of the challenge the council faces. In his response, Minister Rowley thanks the Commissioners for their hard work and dedication and recognises the tough decisions ahead for the council.
On 13 December 2023 Minister Hoare announced to Parliament that he was publishing the second report from the Commissioners, which provides an update on the progress of the intervention, and that appointments were being made to the Commissioner team to provide additional capability and capacity, with Richard Carr as Managing Director Commissioner and Sir Tony Redmond as Lead Commissioner, replacing Jim Taylor.
Documents
Last updated 29 February 2024 + show all updates
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Added Woking Borough Council: Exceptional Financial Support request 2024-25.
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Added Commissioners' second report, Ministerial response to Commissioners’ second report and letter to the Woking Borough Council following the Commissioners’ second report and appointments made to the Commissioner team.
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Added Commissioners' first report; progress update from the council; and Minister Rowley’s response to the Commissioners.
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First published.