Today the Nottingham Post / Nottinghamshire Live is calling for action at Nottingham City Council as further revelations of serious financial mismanagement are laid bare. The city had first been alerted to significant failings at the Labour-run authority after the collapse of Robin Hood Energy in 2020, with millions in taxpayer cash thrown at the faltering vanity project. However, recent investigations have uncovered much more.
Castle ward councillor and portfolio holder for finance, Sam Webster, had adamantly argued Robin Hood Energy was a "one-off", but just weeks later this turned out to be far from the case. Two independent reviews claimed millions could have been “systematically taken away from some of its most vulnerable citizens” through a series of payments, spanning several years, between Nottingham City Homes and the council.
This money was intended to benefit council tenants but was instead used to patch budget pressures on other services. Despite the argument it was done for ethical reasons it was deemed £15m of these had been unlawfully spent. The overall scale of these issues could total more than £40m however and there must be consequences for those involved.
