Thurrock Council Repays Millions Of Pounds Borrowed From Brighton & Hove

Monday, 14 August 2023 08:49

By Sarah Booker-Lewis - Local Democracy Reporter

A bankrupt council which borrowed millions of pounds from Brighton and Hove City Council has paid back the money.

Thurrock Council borrowed a total of £15 million from Brighton and Hove – most of it at a time when the Essex authority’s finances were coming under scrutiny.

It has since emerged that businessman Liam Kavanagh cheated Thurrock out of tens of millions of pounds and went on a spending spree with the cash.

On Monday 31 July, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that he spent £130 million of taxpayer money on a country estate, private jet, luxury yacht and other multimillion-pound purchases including a Bugatti supercar.

Thurrock Council was effectively made bankrupt after investing £655 million in a solar farm business run by Mr Kavanagh.

In July last year, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that Thurrock could lose £200 million of the £655 million handed over to Mr Kavanagh’s businesses.

By February this year, the Essex council was £1.5 billion in debt and in talks with the government to borrow up to £636 million to help balance its books.

Brighton and Hove made two of its three loans of £5 million each to Thurrock Council after concerns were first raised about the sums being invested in the solar farm company.

The first £5 million loan was made on Tuesday 12 May 2020 – just days before the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published its first report into Thurrock’s finances.

On the day after repayment was due, Thursday 12 May 2022, the loan was effectively rolled over, with Brighton and Hove lending Thurrock another £5 million.

The second loan was repaid on Thursday 11 May this year.

Thurrock borrowed a further £5 million from Brighton and Hove in October 2021 and repaid the money in October last year.

Brighton and Hove City Council has previously said that such government-backed loans have “no risk of default”.