Did you hear Nick Ferrari on LBC this morning? Talking to Cllr Paul Fisher about the "reckless waste" at Labour-led Westminster Council with millions of pounds given to a now collapsed building firm and the sheer number of highly paid executives.
Listen to the recording or read the interview below:
Did you hear Nick Ferrari on LBC this morning? Talking to Cllr Paul Fisher about the "reckless waste" at Labour-led Westminster Council with millions of pounds given to a now collapsed building firm and the sheer number of highly paid executives.
Listen to the recording or read the interview below:
LBC's Henry Riley has the full details. Henry, morning.
Good morning, Nick. Yes, a huge spotlight, as you say, on local authorities, particularly in the capital with those all-out elections taking place next year. As you say, in simple terms, every councillor is up for reelection. And we can reveal that Westminster City Council spent over 27 million pounds after ignoring concerns about a building firm that went bust.
The spotlight now very much on the council's leader, Adam Hug. Now, it was just months after Labour gained control of the council for the first time back in 2022 that the construction firm, Geoffrey Osborne Limited were awarded a series of lucrative contracts in order to build 64 affordable homes.
Now, that was... there was also a clear warning at the time that they had a poor performance and that there were bankruptcy risks associated. Earlier that same year, an internal memo was circulated detailing the extent of the firm's financial woes and that the firm was at risk of ultimate supplier failure.
They'd lost nearly 14 million pounds in the 18 months leading to September 2020. Paul Fisher was elected as a Labour councillor before defecting to the Conservatives on Westminster and told us that taxpayers should've been better protected.
That reckless decision, in my opinion, was taken because cabinet members weren't willing to push back on the advice that they were being given by officers. As councillors, it's our job to interrogate advice that we receive and that's even more important when you're in the position of a cabinet member with responsibility for millions of pounds worth of public works contracts.
And unfortunately, in this scenario, there was clearly a failure to push back on that advice so as to protect taxpayer money.
Now, Geoffrey Osborne Limited filed for administration in April 2024. The council then had to allocate an additional 22 million pounds, uh, to another contractor. That was not put out for competitive tender. The authority also earmarked, uh, 5.6 million pounds for remedy work that was carried out by the firm.
Joanna Marchong from the Adam Smith Institute told us that it reeks of mismanagement.
Construction and housing in the borough, in itself, in Westminster is a mess. You walk around and you do see loads of people that are homeless. It takes 100 years on a waiting list to gain access to a house. So from waiting list, to access to social housing, it takes 100 years.
Council itself not doing their background research properly or failing to even act on research already done, it's careless and it reeks of mismanagement.
So a lot of spotlight on that. Also, there are the salaries, Nick. We can reveal 92 members of staff at Westminster City Council earn over 100,000
How many?
a year. Ninety-two, um, earn over 100 grand a year. That's more than twice the number just four years ago. In response to the pay, the council said it "reflects the skills needed". And that they "recruit the best talent for managing within a complex organization." And that the only reason there are that many over 100,000
Is that the taxpayers paying for them.
... is because, um, it's, uh, gradual annual pay increases. And then lastly, Nick, in response to the building contractor story. Westminster say that "lessons have been learned" but say, "The entire building industry faced significant challenges during the pandemic. There's a robust procedure in place before awarding this contract." They'd worked with the firm before, and that they will now look for earlier warning signs.
Can I suggest it might be a good idea to keep a close eye on Westminster Council over the coming months?
We will be keeping an eye.
Henry Riley, LBC's Henry Riley reporting.
