Government intervention at Croydon, June 2025

Updates following the announcement that the government are ‘minded to’ appoint commissioners at Croydon.

What is happening at Croydon

The government announced on 12 June that they are ‘minded to’ appoint commissioners at Croydon due to the council’s serious financial challenges, and invited representations ahead of a decision this summer. You can read the Written Ministerial Statement. 

No decisions have yet been made.

The council submitted its formal representation to the government on 25 June, the deadline for responses.

The council does not believe that appointing commissioners is the right plan for Croydon, and has put forward a preferred option for working with the government from July.

Local partners have also submitted representations to the government in support of the council’s position.

Croydon’s response

We have published our submission, and some of the submissions from partners.

Read:

Letters:

Read the Mayor of Croydon, Jason Perry's statement in response to the government’s announcement.

Why the government are 'minded to' appoint commissioners

The Written Ministerial Statement followed the publication of the final letter from Croydon's government-appointed Improvement and Assurance Panel (IAP).

Croydon has worked with the IAP since 2021. They were appointed after the council’s financial and governance collapse in 2020. 

Since then, we have made good progress in improving our council. This has been recognised by a wide range of partners, from our children’s services being rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, to the Regulator for Social Housing, the council’s auditors and the Local Government Association (LGA). 

We have met 96% of the actions in our Exit Strategy – our jointly-agreed plan for the panel to leave Croydon this summer. Staff across the council have played a really important role in making this positive change for residents.

But Croydon’s financial position remains incredibly challenging, among the most difficult in the country.

We have been clear that the council’s financial challenges are so serious, that we cannot meet the Exit Strategy requirements on becoming financially sustainable.

This is due to a combination of our historic debt, and the pressures that all councils are facing – with rising demand for our services, and extra costs in delivering them.

While we understand that the government wants assurance that Croydon is delivering best value for residents, Croydon Council disagrees with the conclusions in the panel’s letter. We have raised concerns with government over its content.

We have worked with our government-appointed panel for several years. If at any time the panel or the government felt that there was any action the council should be taking and was not, they had the power to instruct us. We are pleased that this never happened.

For these reasons, in our response to the government, we are seeking to understand why they feel that appointing commissioners is the right solution for Croydon.

We understand that the government needs assurance that the council is doing all it possibly can to meet its Best Value Duty to residents. We welcome the opportunity to work with them on a solution on our finances and in our formal representation, we have put forward our own preferred model for delivering this assurance.

Above all, we remain committed to working constructively with civil servants to get the council in a sustainable position, while continuing to deliver the services our residents depend on.

You can read:

What happens next

Our existing government panel was due to leave the council by 20 July, so we anticipate that the government will make their decision by that date or sooner.

Control of the council

There are no changes to the council’s leadership, political or officer.

The Executive Mayor remains the political leader of the council and councillors are the elected representatives. Senior officers remain in post and continue to hold their statutory roles and responsibilities, for example, the Section 151 officer and the director of children’s services.

The government has not yet appointed commissioners, the announcement is that they are ‘minded to’ and we will be responding to that.

Every council with commissioners has a unique model to meet their particular needs and we do not yet know exactly how this will work in Croydon.

In the coming weeks we will be working closely with the government to understand their proposal for Croydon.

We will keep staff, businesses, residents and partners updated and provide more detail when we have it.

Council services

There are no immediate changes to council services bar those which have been announced.

If commissioners are appointed at Croydon, and they wish to make changes, any changes to services would be subject to the usual consultation processes by law.

We are already delivering a huge amount of improvement and change as part of our transformation plans and this will continue. We will continue to involve and consult with staff, residents and partners on these as appropriate.

Council contractors and partners

Our arrangements with suppliers will remain subject to the same contract law, that does not change, including if commissioners are appointed.

Future Croydon

We developed our Future Croydon transformation plan because we agree that the council’s finances are not sustainable. We want to become more cost effective and efficient, while driving growth and investment in our borough.

These plans remain just as important as ever, and we will be continuing to progress them at pace. However we have always been clear that, whilst necessary, Future Croydon will not solve the council’s financial challenges.

The Mayor’s Business Plan

The Mayor’s business plan: 2022 to 2026 remains our corporate plan, that sets our priorities and our service plans. 

The plan is about transforming the council into one that delivers sound and sustainable local government services, and in so doing will transform our borough into one that Croydon residents can once again be proud to call home.