• SOME good news for Camden Council, it is not one of the top 20 debt-ridden English local authorities.

More authorities, are apparently, close to issuing “pre-insolvency warnings” after government cuts and mismanagement.

Woking Council has borrowings of £2billion which is 62 per cent of its income. Higher interest rates make servicing the borrowings more costly.

But what of Camden? Leaving aside its investments in property development, including the high financial risk of the Community Investment Programme, Camden is currently facing some hefty bills.

These include some… [?] £100million to put right the bodged Chalcots estate refurbishment, a £16million debt in the HRA, housing revenue account, and lesser sums on chauffeur-driven limousines, and a £500,000 fine for failure to address serious fire defects in one of its properties before the death of a tenant in 2017.

Add to this the frittering away on consultants and sham consultations on projects such as the refurbishment of Queen’s Crescent. And we have the cost of meeting legal fire regulations in thousands of council homes following a damning government report. What’s the estimated cost?

Yes, a part of the cause is government cuts. But this is exacerbated by mismanagement, reports of which appear regularly in local press and social media.

A basic rule of financial management is the need to cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth. Hopefully Camden is not in danger of joining the list of 20 highly indebted local authorities.

Perhaps somebody in the council could reassure us by publishing the authority’s basic estimated income and expenditure for the current and the next two years; and correct any of the above figures.

MICK FARRANT, NW5