Crawley council's borrowing debt is 'manageable', a spokesman says
Crawley Borough Council has borrowing debts of more than £224m, analysis by the BBC’s Shared Data Unit has found.
Figures published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, have laid out how much major councils all over the country owed to lenders in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The total for West Sussex stood at more than £1.12billion at the end of March. Some 20% of that is owed by Crawley, dropping from £268,425,000 to £224,325,000 by the end of 2024/25.
The debt is not borne by council taxpayers, but if every person in the borough decided to chip in and pay it off, it would cost £1,860 per person.
The average debt per person in England is £1,668.
While they are dropping, the council’s debts are the highest among the seven district and borough councils in West Sussex – but are far lower than many others across the UK.
A council spokesman said the majority of the debt related to the Housing Revenue Account for Crawley Homes.
Describing it as ‘manageable’, they added: “The debt was taken on following the government’s self-financing system which was introduced in April 2012. This allowed local authorities to retain the rental income from the council housing stock, rather than giving a share to government, giving councils greater control over their finances and housing management.
“Like every local authority at the time, Crawley took out this debt and has a loan repayment schedule for paying it back. We have been making loan repayments since 2022/23 and will make another repayment of £13m this year.”
Nationwide, the Shared Data Unit found more than half of UK councils increased their borrowing levels, resulting in a £7.8bn (7 per cent) increase to debt levels in 2024/25.
Experts including Jonathan Carr-West of the Local Government Information Unit said the spiralling levels of debt at local authorities was ‘extremely worrying’.
He added: “That is not a sustainable system. As one local government finance officer said to me, it’s essentially pay-day loans for local governments.
“I don’t think the government would say that’s its long-term ambition. They would say that is what we have had to do to paper over the cracks while we introduce a new funding system for local government.”