The Mayor who has hiked your Council Tax by 27% in just two years today tried to claim that he has the Town Hall finances under control and that no one had raised any concerns about soaring levels of borrowing
Katharine Street sources said that they were “appalled” by the Tory Mayor’s response to the news. After imposing swingeing cuts to public services and hiking Council Tax by 27%, today Perry claimed that “the residents of Croydon have felt enough pain”.
Mayor Perry, like his chief executive, Katherine Kerswell, appears to be in denial of the severity of the situation, and their impotency to improve it.
Perry, who has a growing reputation for not telling the truth, even tried to claim that he had never received directions from the government or from the Whitehall-appointed improvement panel – a direct contradiction of what was written in the improvement panel’s report to Angela Rayner, which was made public today.
“My top priority has always been to fix the council’s finances,” Perry said in a prepared statement issued at lunchtime, claiming, somewhat unconvincingly, “we have done everything possible to achieve this at a local level whilst protecting vital services”.
Perry’s record in office since 2022 includes hiking residents’ Council Tax by 27% and in March this year accepting a £136million bail-out from government, after spending at the council last year ran out of control.
The council’s debt stands at £1.4billion. But under Perry’s finance plans, he wants to increase that debt to £2.2billion by 2027. The improvement panel described such borrowing plans as “impossible”.
Cockin’ a deaf ‘un: Jason Perry claims that no one told him there were problems with the council’s finances
In his statement today, Perry bleated: “If at any time the panel or government felt that there was any action the council should be taking, and was not, they had the power to instruct us. They never did.
“Surely that means we are doing everything possible, and they agree with our actions? We have already made very difficult decisions and in my view the residents of Croydon have felt enough pain.”
One Town Hall insider described Perry’s statement as “an appalling example, even by Perry’s standards, of his gas-lighting the people of this borough”.
According to a Katharine Street source today, “If Mayor Perry really is claiming he was unaware of significant reservations about the out-of-control spending and his bat-shit crazy plan to borrow another half a billion quid, then he’s either deaf, or stupid.”
In the statement issued from the council’s propaganda bunker, it was claimed that the Mayor who has closed four public libraries, is axing the Youth Engagement Team and is ending the borough’s lollipop patrols, as well as other salami-slicing of public services, “is not willing to support any cuts that would decimate local services”.
Yet in the same statement, the council outlined how there have been £167million of service cuts imposed on Croydon residents over the last four years, with another £50million more cuts coming this year under Perry.
The Tory Mayor who in 2022 issued Croydon’s third Section 114 Notice, effectively admitting bankruptcy, and in 2023 hiked Council Tax by 15%, is now saying that he is not prepared “to break his promise to residents of no more Council Tax rises above the government cap”.
The next council budget is due to be agreed in February 2026. With the next Mayoral elections in May 2026, that’s looking like it could be Perry’s last council budget as Croydon Mayor.
Read more: McMahon acts after serious concerns on ‘aspects of leadership’
Read more: Borrowing plan would lead to council’s ‘collapse’ says report
Read more: Government sends in Commissioners to run Croydon Council
Read more: Kerswell’s ‘Stabilisation Plan’ has failed before it is approved
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
