ROTTEN BOROUGHS
WOE IS WOKING
IT’S more than two years since Woking in Surrey declared itself bankrupt, with a £1bn budget deficit and a £2bn debt. A crack team of government-appointed commissioners swept in to fix the mess, and council leaders promised improvement “at pace”. Alas, the pace has been leisurely, and the debt largely remains.
The government has agreed to a bailout, but the amount has not been set and it will not be doled out until April. Woking residents now have the largest council debt per person in the UK, according to the BBC’s shared data unit, with an average £20,000 per resident.