Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the apparent £24m misspend of Nottingham City Council was 'concerning'. Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, the Conservative minister said it was a "worrying" situation that "has cost residents millions and millions of pounds".
However Mr Sunak, who was visiting the Very Group Distribution Centre near East Midlands Airport on Thursday, April 28, said he could not comment on whether the Government would intervene. It follows an investigation into city council and Nottingham City Homes (NCH) accounts that found another £25m worth of council housing rents could have been wrongly spent, with the suggestion the city council may have spent another £8.503m on the wrong services and NCH, the council's housing provider, said to have misspent £17.158m, a claim it denies.
This comes after the Labour-run city council 'unlawfully' spent more than £15m on the wrong services, a finding the council served a legal notice over. It subsequently avoided the step of commissioners being called in, however faces renewed questions over the latest findings.
Read more: Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City Homes may have wrongly spent another £24m
Mr Sunak said it was the first time he had been made aware of the misspend, so could not comment on whether the government would intervene in the running of the council. “It’s obviously concerning to hear and I’m sure local residents will be worried about this mismanagement of their money," he said.
"There are processes in place that exist that are run by local government and by the department for local government for all those types of things so it wouldn’t be right for me to comment any further on those. Although what you’ve raised is concerning to hear and worrying given that the situation, I think, has cost residents millions and millions of pounds.”
Addressing the misspend on Tuesday, April 26, Councillor David Mellen, leader of Nottingham City Council, said that the findings were "clearly a setback". He added that the finance and governance arrangements around the ring-fencing of the HRA fell "seriously short of acceptable standards".
"It's important to make clear that the funding in question has been used for purposes that benefit local people but that are not an appropriate use of what is effectively tenants' money," said Mr Mellen. During his visit to the East Midlands the Chancellor also addressed concerns in Nottingham over the cost of living crisis.
The Chancellor had previously said that it would be "silly" to look at further support with energy bills until they are set to rise again in the autumn. Answering what his message would be to those currently struggling to get by, Mr Sunak said: "I absolutely know that it's tough right now and that many families are struggling with prices going up, particularly with energy.
"That's why we've already put in place an extensive amount of support to try and make a difference to people while we can - so on energy £9billion. Many people will have already received a £150 discount on their council tax in the last few weeks, a further £200 to come later on in the year.
"The minimum wage is going up and people's tax is being cut at the beginning of July very significantly. If we need to step in and support people more then of course will look at that."
