Regeneration schemes may need to be 'indulgence of the past'

Councillor Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) made the claim in response to news the “capitalisation direction” that the Council is using to balance its books in the coming years will be much higher than forecast just a few months ago.

At a meeting of the Council’s Executive on Tuesday, members were told that the capitalisation direction will amount to around £525 million by 2028 – a sum Cllr Pollard described as “gargantuan.”

He accused Council bosses of failing to bring the spiralling budget under control over several years.

Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe responded by the financial situation was down to 14 years of Conservative Government austerity.

Earlier this year the Government agreed to provide “exceptional financial support” to Bradford Council – which would have otherwise faced effective bankruptcy.

It would allow the Council to borrow money to balance its books – something not usually allowed. It would also be able to use the money from asset sales to prop up existing services – local government rules usually require income from the sale of assets to only be used for capital schemes.

At Tuesday’s Executive, members heard that estimates for how much this financial support would be worth have risen dramatically in the past few months.

The financial report that went before the Executive revealed that the support needed for 2025/26 financial year was estimated to be £126m – up from estimates of £88m in March.

By the end of the 2027/28 financial year, the total figure will have risen to £525m - up from the £399.5m estimated in March.

The Council will also have to make around £100m from the sale of assets – initially that figure was £66m.

At the meeting Cllr Pollard said the spiralling financial problems “makes the Council budgets of the last couple of years look like works of creative fiction.”

He described previous budget estimates as “bizarre nonsense.” 

Referring to the fact that the Council was still moving ahead with regeneration schemes, like the City Village residential development, despite financial problems, he said: “I don’t think the Executive have smelt the coffee.”

In response, Cllr Hinchliffe pointed out that the former Conservative Government had been criticised for leaving a “black hole” in public finances.

Councillor Mike Pollard (Image: T&A)

She said: “The people of this country decided 14 years of no growth was no way to run the country, let alone a city. The state of public finances left by the last Government has been astonishing.

“You talk about fiction – the National fiction from the Conservatives is being exposed as we speak.”

Cllr Hinchcliffe said the City Village scheme was being carried out with funding from external bodies like Homes England. She added: “We can’t survive if we don’t do regeneration. It would be a race to the bottom creating more poverty.”

Steven Mair, Director of Finance at the Council, said the March figures were “early estimates” and argued that figures regularly change. 

After the meeting Cllr Pollard, Conservative & Queensbury Independent Group Spokesman for Finance and Projects said: “We have a sense of deep unease regarding the deliverability of the plan to turn around the Council’s financial position.

“Whilst we feel that the new Chief Executive and Interim Director of Finance have got a good measure of the scale of the challenge and more of a grip on the problem than some of their predecessors, we believe that the Council’s rather late in the day appointment of the new top team may have caused the situation to be simply irrecoverable, regardless of how capable they are.

“The escalating problems with the Council’s finances didn’t happen overnight and they were far from unforeseeable; they were looming for at least a couple of years.

“However, the Leader of the Council and the Executive Committee wouldn’t accept criticism, or perhaps, even more worryingly, didn’t even recognise its validity.”

“Servicing additional borrowing will cost in the region of £41m per annum just six years hence. People will understandably glaze over a bit with all this, but to put that into readily grasped context, £41m per annum is equivalent to nearly 17% of all 2024/25 Council Tax budgeted receipts. 

“It is clear to me that the Executive’s ‘regeneration opportunities’ will need to be an indulgence of the past – no more speculative Grade A office buildings to be funded at uneconomic cost, or properties bought for large sums in order to demolish them trying to open other doors to further ‘opportunities, so I am mortified to see that the Executive are still intent on pursuing City Village etc. The Bradford Live and One City Park fiascos have shown that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing.”