Every council has meetings.Some have strategies.Some have visions.A few even have plans. What they are supposed to have, particularly when tens of millions of pounds of public borrowing are involved, is a clear understanding of risk. Recently, a Freedom of Information request asked Shropshire Council to produce exactly that: the documentation showing its financial exposureContinue reading “Cornovii: The Risk Nobody Can Quite Find”
Tag Archives: housing
Transparency at the Local Council
Now With Added Devolution, Fewer Services, and Even Less Memory Local councils are, we are endlessly assured, champions of transparency. This is said often, confidently, and usually just after something significant has happened without anyone quite noticing. Transparency, in the modern council sense, does not mean visibility. That would invite questions. Instead, it means thatContinue reading “Transparency at the Local Council”
Shropshire Council’s Financial Strategy: How to Look Solvent While Running Out of Road
The Calm Voice at the Edge of the Cliff There is a particular tone councils adopt when the numbers stop adding up. It is not panic.It is not honesty.It is reassurance. Shropshire Council’s Financial Strategy for 2026–31 is written in that tone. Calm. Managerial. Responsible. The kind of document that wants you to feel thatContinue reading “Shropshire Council’s Financial Strategy: How to Look Solvent While Running Out of Road”
Angry?
Then meet the people who thought running a property development company was just another council hobby Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight. Shropshire Council is currently exposed to Cornovii to the tune of around £45 million of public money.That is not a forecast.It is not a worst-case scenario.It is not aContinue reading “Angry?”
Cowards of the County: Snouts in the Trough
Austerity for residents. Certainty for councillors That is not a talking point — it is the evidence. What follows names those who are paid, recalls the precedent they have chosen to ignore, and records the silence that now defines leadership in Shropshire. Then vs Now: A Matter of Choice Shropshire Council became a unitary authorityContinue reading “Cowards of the County: Snouts in the Trough”
THE INVISIBLE HAND THAT BUILDS SHROPSHIRE (AND IT ISN’T THE COUNCIL)
There’s a strange rumour doing the rounds in Shropshire’s housing circles:“Homes England has taken over Wrekin Housing Group.” Now, this is only partly true — but the truth it reveals is far more interesting than the rumour itself. Because once you dig beneath the polite announcements and the PR gloss, a picture emerges that’s lessContinue reading “THE INVISIBLE HAND THAT BUILDS SHROPSHIRE (AND IT ISN’T THE COUNCIL)”
CIL? WHAT CIL? JUST ANOTHER DAY IN TRANSPARENT SHROPSHIRE
The CIL Trick: When the Council Develops Homes and Quietly Misplaces Its Own Tax Bill There’s a special kind of magic in Shropshire Council’s housebuilding operation. The sort of magic in which houses appear, PR photos multiply, councillors beam… and then — poof! — the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) vanishes like a toddler’s biscuit. CILContinue reading “CIL? WHAT CIL? JUST ANOTHER DAY IN TRANSPARENT SHROPSHIRE”
THE £37 MILLION CIL QUESTION
THE GREAT SHROPSHIRE CIL SWINDLE (ALLEGEDLY, BUT YOU KNOW…) You’ve hopefully had a good chuckle during The Elephant in the Room series — the vanishing FOIs, the disappearing councillors, the council-owned companies that behave like Russian dolls with a drinking problem. But now, dear reader, the humour gives way to the hard questions. Because behindContinue reading “THE £37 MILLION CIL QUESTION”
THE HOUSING MACHINE THAT NOBODY ORDERED
How Homes England, the Councils, and Their Favourite Friends Built a System Only a Bureaucrat Could Love Opening: The Gloves Come Off Let’s begin with a confession: I used to think house building was simple. A bit of land, a few bricks, and a council officer who hasn’t mysteriously gone home at 3.45pm. But thatContinue reading “THE HOUSING MACHINE THAT NOBODY ORDERED”
Cornovii Part 3 – When the Paper Trail Starts to Sweat
There comes a moment in every local local government saga when the spreadsheets begin to twitch, the meeting minutes start to shift uncomfortably in their folders, and the once-confident PowerPoint warriors develop an unexpected fondness for the phrase “commercially sensitive.” For Cornovii, that moment is now Because while Shropshire Council continues its noble tradition ofContinue reading “Cornovii Part 3 – When the Paper Trail Starts to Sweat”
The Alternative Council 