Four district councils in London’s commuter belt have accumulated debts worth a collective £4.2 billion, or about £10,000 per resident, on property investments, many of which have gone awry.
Woking, Spelthorne and Runnymede, all in Surrey, and Eastleigh in neighbouring Hampshire have the highest debt-to-income ratios in the country. The four owe debt between 700 per cent and 1,500 per cent of their annual income, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
Woking is already effectively bankrupt, while both Eastleigh and Runnymede have been the subject of notices from central government concerned about their financial health. Spelthorne has yet to receive a similar warning, but in 2022 KPMG, its auditor, warned that the council’s decision to borrow £225 million to purchase three
