Moody’s withdraws credit rating of Warrington council

Warrington borough council, which holds meetings at the town hall, has faced scrutiny over a ‘high risk’ investment strategy it pursued to raise cash. Photograph: John Davidson Photos/Alamy

Warrington council’s inability to find an auditor to sign off its accounts has led the credit rating agency Moody’s to withdraw its monitoring of the authority, amid mounting concern about the broader crisis in local government funding.

In a statement, Warrington borough council said Moody’s Investors Service was no longer providing it with a credit rating, a crucial metric used by potential lenders to assess a borrower’s creditworthiness.