There is a legal requirement that Councils have a balanced budget. This is impossible because Havering is bankrupt. Its statutory commitments can’t be funded from revenue. The strategy is to add to debts to pay revenue commitments. This is fiscal insanity as the interest can’t be paid.
Enter Chris Wilkins, Cabinet Member for Finance (13 minutes).1,2 He declared the budget will be legally balanced because…..he’d organised more debt. The debt mountain will be £229m by 2029. Chris gives an excellent impression of being a nodding donkey. He doesn’t seem to understand what he‘s reading. A debt of £229m means interest payments will be 30% of the budget by 2029. Chris didn’t mention interest charges during his 13 minutes speech. Philip Ruck (1:31) noticed and was outraged at the sheer folly of it. Annual (unpaid) interest payments would be about £17m and would be added to the capital. Credit card maxxed out!
Keith Darvill (25) introduced the Labour amendment3 self-consciously. He was ultra-defensive and apologetic – as if he was speaking out of turn.
Michael White (36) gave a masterful speech. He demonstrated his command of the subject and critiqued HRA’s four years in a probing, forensic way. The principal highlight was his remarks about the GLA budget, which amounts to nearly 25% of the total Council Tax bill. He made play about the lack of a medium-term plan for the dire budget pressures. He worried about the impact of the Israel-USA-Iran war on interest rates. Michael made obvious remarks about relying on loans for revenue expenditure. Thus, he successfully trashed Chris’s blissful optimism.
Martin Goode (53) denounced the reliance on long-term debt to fund current expenditure. He demanded that the Council throw in the towel and face facts. He wants Government Commissioners to take over the Council. Gillian Ford (1:00) said only the section 151 officer could ask for Government assistance like this. That ought not be a problem as she had previously stated HRA was following an unsustainable strategy.
Keith Prince (1:01) has a curious flippant style, which mostly falls flat. He worried about debt and the borough’s future Council Taxpayers. Interestingly he claimed the borough’s woes were turbo-charged by the lack of detailed scrutiny. This is theoretically likely but Havering’s culture of absenteeism4 by councillors means more scrutiny is unlikely. Unlikely because it involves doing homework and turning up.
Ray Morgon (1:28) indulged in chit-chat. Judith Holt (1:34) pointed out special skills were needed to read a budget book 1070 pages long. Nisha Patel (1:40) did a good review of Michael’s speech reinforcing some points. Gillian Ford (1:42) had a breathless shopping list of achievements. The concept ‘strategy’ appeared many times. Brian Eagling (1:45) said that football pitches had seen fees rise yet again and that sport should be promoted. Oscar Ford (1:48) used fluent management speech. This didn’t always coincide with reality. Barry Mugglestone (1:51) was combative, which livened the meeting up. He and Keith Prince exchanged pleasantries about the Freedom Pass. They were both right, which made it more entertaining.
Jane Keane (1:56) did a Hollywood Oscar’type speech praising the Council’s staff. David Taylor (1:58) is a class act who will be badly missed. His nemesis, Andrew Rosindell, was given a quick going over. Andrew has consistently voted for the bankruptcy of Havering. Luckily he was in the chamber to enjoy David’s speech. James Glass (2:01) was demob crazy and is a loss. What he lacks in accuracy he makes up for with boyish enthusiasm.
Best speech: Michael White
Most sincere speech: Brian Eagling
Notes
1 Annotator Player All times relate to this webcast
2 Group spokesmen had 20 minutes for budget speeches. Astonishingly, Wilkins only used 13 minutes.
3 This Council calls on the Administration to introduce and promote an SME Support Package, initially, funding such a proposal from unspent UKSPF (and/or other unspent grants) seeking partnership for such a support package with organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Adult College. (Public Pack)Agenda Document for Council, 04/03/2026 19:30 p1073
4 Havering Councillors and Their Attendance – Politics in Havering
Politics in Havering 
I spoke to Cllr Goode and advised taking legal action under the Equality Act to get fair funding. He never mentioned this option in his speech, merely repeating the Reform idea of declaring bankruptcy, which may be a statement of fact but hardly a solution.
In the past I was advised the biased funding can’t be legally challenged as its been approved by Parliament (its been Labour and Conservative national party policy for over 40 years), except Equality legislation supersedes earlier legislation as its becomes the law of the land.
I’ve asked councillors to raise this option, they won’t, and asked Cllr Morgon to provide the legal opinion he claims to have received saying it can’t be used, but he won’t provide it. Hence why our 55 councillors are well paid window dressing for a defunct local democracy.
Only taking legal action will make a difference and so unless councillors support legal action they are in reality all members of the same UNIPARTY, hence the ease with which they ‘change sides’!
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Thank you for your comment.
*Fair Funding* isn’t an equality thing. Local government finance is a national statement of intent and is not subject to individual lobbying. Any change for Havering would have an immediate ripple effect across the country.
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Fair funding is an equality thing and its certainly an Equality Act 2010 thing as this act is draconian and applies to everything.
Havering isn’t suffering poor funding due to oversight, Havering like 100s of other councils are suffering poor funding by design following the Lord Scarman report into the Brixton riots which recommended prioritising public spending in our inner-cities.
Havering could join with many other councils in a class action (so wouldn’t cost much per council) and reveal to the public the outrageous funding formulas that have crippled local government and funded mass-migration into London for many years.
The formulas are Labour and Conservative national party policy, hence why the local parties won’t take action against their own national party policy, preferring to fool the public by blaming each other instead.
An Independent council could take action, but the HRA are a fake alternative who are too timid to take action and just let officers run the council.
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