Local elections 2021: What is the financial future for West Northamptonshire?

In 2018 Northamptonshire County Council effectively went bankrupt - twice. The government ordered the authority to be scrapped. With elections for the unitary councils that replaced it taking place, the BBC asked candidates in one of them - West Northamptonshire - if it would fare any better?

In his damning report on debt-ridden Northamptonshire County Council, the government-appointed inspector Max Caller said "living within budget constraints is not part of the culture" of the authority.

Written in 2018, his report said the Conservative-run council should be scrapped.

The government listened.

Along with the county council, which was called the "worst-run" authority in the country by Conservative MP for Kettering Philip Hollobone, the area's seven borough and district councils were also axed.

Fast-forward to 2021, and elections are taking place for the two successor organisations which replaced the various councils. The new councils, both unitary authorities, are West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council.

But back in 2018, another theory to the one put forward by Mr Caller had been in play.

Many, including the then county council leader Heather Smith, who had appealed to the government for fairer funding the year before, felt there simply was not enough money available for the ever increasing costs of services, particularly in adult social care.

Local government expert Professor Tony Travers believes West Northamptonshire Council will fare better than its predecessor - but only because it has to.

Mr Travers, a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics, said it will face "the same demand and financial difficulty" that helped bring down the county council.

"There is no likelihood of any let up," he says. "The new authorities can look forward to flat spending on services other than social care.

"That means reductions.

"Do the new authorities manage their money better? Almost certainly.

"The hope and expectation is they will balance their books."

He said services such as libraries, street lighting and roads "will remain under pressure for years".

Labour's Danielle Stone was the opposition leader on now defunct Northampton Borough Council and a county councillor.

"The Local Government Association says children's and adult social care has been starved of money," she says.

"The government hasn't played fair by local authorities and has starved them of cash.

"We were victims of insufficient funding, but that was compounded by the ideological basis of the Conservative administration at the county council - that low council tax is more important than services and outsourcing is a panacea.

"Those were ideological decisions. It wasn't just financial mismanagement."

Mrs Stone fears the new authority's finances "are precarious".

"In the first year it is benefitting from the reserves it has inherited. That's not sustainable."

Liberal Democrat Sally Beardsworth pointed to the amount of money wasted by the county council.

Most notable, she says, was the "obscene cost" of its new Northampton-based headquarters, One Angel Square.

Having spent £53m building it, the authority was forced to sell the building and rent it back.

But she also says adequate funding was "the crux of the problem" and warns it will be again.

"Government has withdrawn money since austerity," she says.

"The only thing that will end up happening is we will just do our statutory stuff. There will be no jam, just bread and butter."

Green Party spokesman Steve Miller is equally worried.

"Fairer funding is still not in sight," he says. "National government has left local authorities out to dry.

"The social care budget deficit is just going to grow.

"I don't see how the two ends of national government cutting funding and increased service costs can meet without more council tax."

He says while it can be argued fairer funding was not the cause of the county council's collapse, "even if you have a council going all guns blazing and focused on running the best services it can, there's still going to be a funding gap".

Conservative Jonathan Nunn, the former leader of Northampton Borough, acknowledges the pressure local government remains under, but has "a much higher level of confidence" in the West Northamptonshire authority.

He admits issues such as an economy recovering from a post-Covid world which could put a squeeze on council tax and business rates income will likely lead to "a worsening poverty situation".

But he points to the new authority's budget for 2021-22 which does not feature any service reductions.

He insists the work done at county-level in the years since its financial collapse has been vital.

Government appointed commissioners oversaw the authority as it managed to balance its final budget.

"Everything was examined with the commissioners," Mr Nunn says. "It was a continual journey to find savings and do things better with less money."

Ultimately, he says, thinks have to improve: "The basic premise is a huge amount of resource has gone towards creating a unitary council.

"After all this, it has to be better."

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