Leicestershire County Council is still to get its American-style audit from Reform UK
Leicestershire County Council will have to wait before the auditors visit.
A deep dive into the authority's books – and those of other councils around the country – was the key pledge made by Reform UK when the country went to the polls last month.
The party told the LDRS prior to this year's local election that an American-style audit would be needed before a Reform-led council could "start to deliver for local people".
A spokesman accused the then Conservative-led authority of "wasting staggering sums", saying these included "over £35 million on consultants in just three years and over £1 million for interpretation and translation services over the last year".
Leicestershire County Council has long prided itself on being one of the most efficiently run councils in the country.
Now, Reform UK has announced which UK council will be the first to undergo such an audit, with the inaugural meeting for this set to be held at Kent County Council today (Monday, June 6).
That team is then expected to move on to each of the remaining nine councils Reform controls in turn with Leicestershire still anticipated to be included in that, the spokesman told the LDRS.
So, when can the county expect its own audit? That is still not known as there is not yet a timescale for each of the local authorities, the spokesman said.
He added: "[Kent is] the biggest one (council), so it will give us an indication of how long these audits will take and how they'll go. I don't think [councils are] being prioritised in order of importance or anything like that.
"It would just be done by whenever the team and the councils are able to get together and do them. But the Reform intention is that they'll (the auditors) go around to all the Reform-controlled councils."
One of the concerns raised over the plans to audit Leicestershire County Council is where the money would come from to pay for this. When the LDRS asked new leader Dan Harrison about this ahead of the first council meeting of the new term, he told us they would "find" it because the audit was "vital".
Now, Reform UK has told the LDRS the audits will not "cost the public purse a penny". This, the spokesman said, is because the team carrying them out has agreed to do the work "pro bono".
The team will be made up of "leaders in their fields", he added. These will include "software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors".
May's local elections marked the end of more than two decades of continuous Conservative Party leadership on Leicestershire County Council, with the party falling to 15 seats and taking up position as the main opposition on the authority.
Reform came away with 25 councillors, just shy of what it needed for a majority.
Share:
