Brighton and Hove City Council has debts totalling £420 million, according to government figures, but one local politician said that this was on the low side compared with many other local authorities.
Out of 381 councils in the UK, Brighton and Hove is broadly in the middle on several measures including debt per person, the BBC’s Shared Data Unit found.
The Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, said: “Debt in of itself should not be feared.”
Councillor Taylor, the council’s cabinet member for finance, said that Brighton and Hove was a low-debt council, especially compared with similar councils.
It was not one of the 30 councils that had gone bust – or sought exceptional financial support from the government, making use of treasury loans or selling assets to cover day-to-day spending.
A common comparison is with other unitary councils – councils responsible for everything from education and social services to planning and bin collections – rather than county and district councils.
And Brighton and Hove ranks 64th for overall debt out of 130 unitary councils in the UK – and 71st for debt per person which stands at £1,501.54.
Compared with its “statistical neighbours” – other similar English unitary councils identified by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) – Brighton and Hove ranked 9 out of 16 for debt levels.
Across the UK, councils owe a combined £122.2 billion to lenders, equivalent to £1,791 per resident, as of the end of March.
Data provided by Brighton and Hove City Council shows that £380 million of its debt is longer-term debt owed to the Public Works Loan Board – including £32 million for the i360.
The council also owes £35 million to banks – and it borrowed £4 million in short-term loans from other local authorities.
Councillor Taylor said: “Comparing levels of borrowing across different types of local authority is largely meaningless – and many councils do not have large-scale housebuilding programmes like Brighton and Hove.
“That said, we actually compare favourably in terms of debt – we have a lower level of debt per head of population than the average for unitary authorities in England.
“Debt in of itself shouldn’t be feared – most of our debt is used to finance council housebuilding or refurbishments or large capital projects like Madeira Terraces or sports facilities.
“What’s important is whether those projects make sense and whether the council can service the debt with revenue repayments.
“There is, however, one number that sticks out like a sore thumb – the borrowing for the i360, which Labour voted against (in 2014), and is the lasting legacy of the Green Party in the city.”
Councillor Taylor has previously spoken in council cabinet meetings about borrowing to invest, as with the recent agreement to borrow to fund the new swimming pool at the Withdean Sports Complex.
The borrowing is expected to be repaid over several years from the entry fees and booking charges that people and groups pay for using the pool.
The level of debt is significantly lower in neighbouring East Sussex where the county council has debts of £212 million – or £380.91 per person.
Lewes District Council has debts of £56.7 million – or £559.15 per person. When all the district and borough councils are included, council debts across East Sussex total £597 million.
West Sussex County Council has slightly more debt than Brighton and Hove – at £468 million – although the per person amount is much smaller at £520.07.
When the district and borough councils are included, the combined debt for West Sussex councils stands at more than £1.12 billion.
Brighton and Hove’s immediate neighbour, Adur District Council, has total debts of £184 million – or £2,841.87 per person, almost twice the £1,501.54 for Brighton and Hove.
When Saltdean and Peacehaven residents recently asked why Brighton and Hove was not looking to expand westward in the proposed shake up of Sussex councils, the official response was that taking over part of Adur would not be financially viable.
Woking, in Surrey, has the highest debt per person at £20,601.33. The 10 councils with the biggest overall debts are
Birmingham £3.35 billion
Leeds £2.64 billion
Woking £2.16 billion
Edinburgh £1.98 billion
Glasgow £1.67 billion
Manchester £1.61 billion
Warrington £1.58 billion
Barking and Dagenham £1.52 billion
Aberdeen £1.52 billion
Croydon £1.46 billion
Think more Households need to Contribute to Council Housing.
Those more so on Disability Benefit-maybe on the Highre Rate as they get to Spend it on whatever they like-instead of Holidays, Hair, Nails,need to keep the Roofs over there heads than doing all of that.
Some get Pension, Disability, Blue Badge, Bus Card, DLA for Grandchildren aswell as them getting UC in there own right.and still don’t Contribute-System needs to Change.
One of the ways I think you could do that Betty is to address the Banding System.
The real unfairness is that Council Tax hasn’t kept pace with the housing market: someone in a modest 2-bed flat can pay almost the same as someone in a million-pound house.
That’s why I think extra bands at the top end would be fairer. More contribution from the households with the biggest and most valuable properties, less pressure on those at the bottom who are already struggling. It spreads the cost more evenly, without punishing people whose benefits are already means-tested.
Our Household is on a low income and like you say it’s the Council Tax
But those in Benefits ( as a mate is in those that I said) pays £40 a month compared to me that’s £180
Her Family income a month is just under £3,000-yet pays no rent and gets everything else-bills like Water are reduced payments each month due to disability within Household.
More and More Children are being Diagnosed with ADHD or Autism and that’s cool-but there Parents attitude is I’m there Carer I can’t work-should be made to while at Schoolto get Benefits-and these are the 1s that get £500 a month for doing nothing-should he made to for there money-I have to go to Job Centre just to get £333 a month.
But I for one will be glad when that ends next year as Youngest Child finishes College and hopefully I have a Job and pay for my own things-not limiting what I can and can’t have.
And as for the Council there used to be time they would help everyone-not everyone can get on the list, even though they have lived in Council Housing with there Parents but have no funds for a Mortgage unless they save for 10 year at age of 18-20-if rhey do they are in the lowest band and go Private.
Have aspirations ,Work hard , get a decent paying job ,bust a gut to get on the housing ladder , live more frugally for a couple of years to rebalance your finances meanwhile still paying your taxes.., have a family you can afford.
Try and save for the rainy day and the future so you will be self suffient and not a burden on society.
And then be told you have broad shoulders and must pay more into the pot .
Agreed. No job, you should be made to take the first one that comes along. Farms always need labour it seems every summer
Inherit a property empire in the UK. Tax all of the money earned from our rents, move the account to jersey to avoid paying millions in tax. Then stand as deputy leader of Reform and suggest privatising the NHS.
Of course all debt isn’t a bad thing, but it’s wrong for Councillor Jacob Taylor to paint the scale of local authority debt as not an issue, when it is. Austerity and the impact of central government cuts to local authority budgets has had, and is having, a devastating effect in our communities.
The council in Brighton and Hove are planning to close libraries, don’t have enough money to address the pothole and road repair backlog, and seemingly never have enough staff to answer phones in customer service teams.
We’re just seeing more austerity under the current government, so as much as Jacob Taylor tries to suggest the funding position isn’t precarious, it just feels like a smokescreen to avoid criticism of the fact the councillors are doing nothing to challenge the government on the impact of ongoing austerity – and that makes them complicit imo on the harm being caused by council cuts – which were initially via Tories, but now happening under the current Labour government.
The 10 councils with the biggest overall debts are
Birmingham £3.35 billion (Labour)
Leeds £2.64 billion (Labour)
Woking £2.16 billion (Lib Dems)
Edinburgh £1.98 billion (Labour Minority)
Glasgow £1.67 billion (SNP Minority)
Manchester £1.61 billion (Labour)
Warrington £1.58 billion (Labour)
Barking and Dagenham £1.52 billion (Labour)
Aberdeen £1.52 billion (SNP/Lib Dems)
Croydon £1.46 billion (Conservative)
I’m sure you are aware that those figures are a bit meaningless without context, since those figures don’t show what the borrowing is for, like housing projects, regeneration, or infrastructure.
Good debt vs. bad debt.
Oh councillor. Anyone can come up with a list like that and try to ascirbe blame based on the current political leadership
What matters is when the debit was incurred (and why)
Woking for example has only been under Lib Dem Control since 2022
But between 2011 – 2019 your party had the majority and was the largest party and held the leadership between 2019 and 2022
The majority of the debts were down to your party!
The Conservative Government is reported to have wastefully spent or dubiously allocated £131,209,116,062
between 2019-2024. https://www.bestforbritain.org/scandalous_spending_tracker
Severe fiscal mismanagement is nothing to be proud of even if other councils are also hopeless. Jacob Taylor needs to put a stop to this money squandering and ensure councll tax is spent on the upkeep of Brighton and Hove and not the council officers or Councillors’ pet projects, six figure salaries for the invisible bosses, an oversized temporary staff budget and anything else not serving the city.
Isn’t that opinion of personal incredulity just completely disregarding the explanation?
The deliberate underfunding of councils by the Conservative Party is solely to blame for this appalling predicament!
But Brighton Council has not exactly covered themselves in glory because everywhere you look; such as continuing with the road layouts at Grand Parade to the Palace Peir that were unnecessary, weren’t needed or wanted and could have been deferred to a later date when this council was more solvent!
But instead of spending money on what was important and people REALLY need and use daily, the council has been spending money like water while maintaining the roads should have taken a higher priority than it has!
The roads in Brighton are a disgrace even though 50% are being resurfaced, it still means 50% won’t be!
Spain relies mostly on tourism to survive and lockdown affected them much more than the UK!
But are their roads as disgraceful as the UK’s?
No they’re not!
I have to keep reminding myself that the UK is the 6th richest nation in the world yet it both feels more like a third world heading dramatically towards bankruptcy!
There’s no denying central government cuts have left councils across the country strapped, Brighton included. But the picture on the roads isn’t quite as simple as “they wasted the money”. Highway funding is ring-fenced in part, resurfacing is scheduled years in advance, and big changes like Valley Gardens are funded by external transport grants that can’t legally be diverted to fill potholes.
Spanish roads are funded differently: much of the network is national or regional, not municipal, and EU cohesion funds historically paid for large motorway projects. UK local councils, by contrast, are directly responsible for most local roads. Comparing Brighton’s local roads to Spanish motorways is apples and oranges.