Bankrupt Thurrock council recklessly gambled hundreds of millions of pounds on risky commercial investments while covering up evidence of its losses and attempting to silence critics, a devastating official review has concluded.
The government-commissioned report published on Thursday said the Tory-run council’s financial collapse in 2022 was the culmination of years of dysfunctional leadership characterised by complacency, denial, and what the review called “unconscious incompetence”.
