Jason Perry, who promised to “fix the finances” of cash-strapped Croydon Council when he was seeking votes to become the borough’s first elected Mayor in 2022, is hardly making a terrific success of managing the finances of his own family business.
Part-timer: while Tory Mayor Jason Perry seeks public office, he is still running a private business
Part-time Perry collects £82,000 per year as Croydon Mayor. Yet since May 2022, he has continued in the role of managing director of Carlton Building Plastics Ltd, while also holding directorships in at least two other companies, according to Companies House records.
In the past year, Perry did manage to reduce his own company’s liabilities. By a grand total of £24,000.
Croydon Council’s debts stand at £1.5billion – around the same amount as when Perry took office almost three years ago.
Looking at those Companies House official records, though, might be a cause for some alarm about the financial aptitude of the person who is nominally in charge of the borough’s business (although we all know that the government-appointed “improvement” panel has been pulling the strings since 2023).
Carlton Building Plastics Ltd was founded by Perry’s father, Michael Perry, in 1988. Based at Beddington Trading Park, it has traded steadily enough over the intervening years, but could never be described as a spectacular or inspired business success.
Bog standard might be the best way of describing it.
Steady, not spectacular: Carlton Building Plastics Ltd’s trading figures. While the price of building materials has soared over the past three years, Carlton’s been make less money
Since Jason Perry took on the management of the firm, it has shown signs of having a struggle to file its company accounts on time. Figures for the year ending December 31, 2023, were filed with Companies House just before Christmas – at least three months later than would usually be expected.
There might be a reason that the borough’s part-time Tory Mayor wanted to keep his business figures away from public gaze for as long as possible.
Classified at Companies House as being in the business for the “wholesale of wood, construction materials and sanitary equipment”, Carlton’s accounts are not any where near as titilating as portrayed in the timeless classic, Carry On At Your Convenience. Though some may think that pompous Perry does have a touch of the WC Boggs about him.
Going down the pan?: Carlton Business Plastics is a bog-standard company
The 2023 figures show a 50% drop in net current assets, something that is generally a red flag for any business, particularly one where the value of property, plant and equipment fell by nearly a quarter, while its inventory value increased. It could indicate difficulties in meeting operational expenses, paying suppliers and managing its stock effectively.
The 23% drop in net assets suggests the company is struggling to maintain its value, which could be due to poor performance, increased liabilities or market conditions.
On that point, while the pandemic wreaked havoc on the construction industry, construction material prices surged in 2022 and 2023 due to the supply disruptions arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, property transactions and construction investment slowed as crippling borrowing costs forced projects to get pushed back or cancelled.
Special delivery: a couple of Carlton’s trucks at their Beddingto base
Price rules competition among construction supplies wholesalers. Because there’s little to set different products apart, wholesalers compete fiercely on price, aiming to undercut competitors to attract business.
The fact that Carlton paid 45% less in Corporation Tax in 2023 compared to 2022 is probably the biggest and best indicator of how things stand with the Mayor’s family business. It’s not a sign of a thriving enterprise.
Perry would be well advised to mind his own business instead of slashing council services and going against his own manifesto commitment not to engage in “salami slicing budgets, which tend to hurt those most in need of Council support”.
Perry has been unusually quiet recently about another of his election promises, to re-open (note that: not to re-build) Purley Pool. Private developers Polaska are now expected to submit a revised planning application sometime early this year.
Mayor Perry has refused to come clean and helpfully identify who the business interests might be behind Polaska, from their murky, offshore tax-haven British Virgin Islands-based parent company. Might those new plans for the 220-unit “later living homes” on the site where the leisure centre and multi-storey car park include loads of construction materials and sanitary equipment?
Perhaps Mayor Perry can offer advice on where Polaska might source their building supplies?
Read more: GLA rejects Polaska Purley Pool plan as ‘wholly unacceptable’
Read more: Council axes Fieldway youth team two weeks before Christmas
Read more: Council puts the ‘sham’ into ‘shambolic’ over 4 closed libraries
Read more: Residents’ groups reject Purley ‘pool’ plan backed by Perry
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WOW! £82,000 for what?!!!
Good question.
He is a keen eater of cake.
I thought it was to compensate for loss of earnings as a Mitcham Belle coach driver (subs: is this right?)
He was elected to prevent another Labour administration wasting even more of our money and forcing our Council Tax even higher.
And how’s that worked out? 27% Council Tax increases in two years…
Council Tax had to increase in order to repay the debts caused by the previous Labour administration’s loss of control of the Council’s finances. Two examples of this are Brick by Brick and the overhaul of Fairfield Halls. There may be other examples……. That Labour administration was elected by the people of Croydon so most people would consider that the people of Croydon should pay for the consequences.
Perry left behind debts of £800million in 2014. In 2022, council debt was £1.5billion.
In 2025, council debt is still £1.5bn, with overspends of £20m+ and £80m+ predicted for this year and next.
And Council Tax at record levels.
So how exactly is part-time Perry working out?
As I said before, Perry’s presence is there to ensure Labour do not wreck the finances again. Of course overspends will occur — interest rates have risen so the volume of interest payments is likely to increase.
Interest rates are lower now than when Perry became Mayor.
He’s blatantly useless, just as you are patently incapable of recognising facts or accepting the truth.
To whom are these debts being repaid?
By your logic, our Council Tax should have gone up by an average of £2600 a year just to pay somebody or other and put us back in the black by the time Perry seeks re-election in 2026.
And why stop there?
The UK’s national debt rose from c60% of GDP when Gordon Brown was leaving 10 Downing Street to 99% when Sunak cleared out. Tax hikes and service cuts (not to mention flagrant waste, corruption and tax-dodging) have made things worse, not better.
Conservative and Labour incompetence, naivety and stupidity have ruined this borough, but it was the Tories’ wreckonomics and Brexit that broke this country
Comparing 2022 with 2023, we can see that Carlton Building Plastics’
– non-current assets went down by 23%
– cash in bank down 37%
– net current assets down 50%
– net assets down 23%
– total assets less current liabilities down 35%
– both retained earnings and shareholders’ funds down 37%
– the debt ratio increased, to 75%.
Apart from that, everything was fine and dandy. Creditors beware!
Will 2024 turn out to have been a better year for part-time Perry? We’ll have to wait until 30 September, when that year’s accounts are due.
If Jason can’t manage his own business, why should he be re-elected Mayor in May 2026 to mind ours? We need a full-timer to focus on the job in hand, not a part-time meddler, half-asleep at the wheel
Wherever possible I support local independent businesses. The impact of Brexit, austerity and mismanagement of the both the local and national economy has been disastrous for thousands of small and medium sized businesses in Croydon and across the country.
I don’t share Jason Perry’s politics but I do hope his business prospers for the sake of his 10 employees and their families.
When seeking election, Perry tried to make out he is a competent businessman. Just one of Perry’s porkies