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The truth is simple: we need to solve Croydon’s financial crisis

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CROYDON COMMENTARY: Even before her own party bosses censored her manifesto, there were spending commitments being made by Rowenna Davis, Labour’s candidate for Croydon Mayor, that just don’t add up. LibDem candidate RICHARD HOWARD, pictured left, explains

Rowenna Davis’s mayoral manifesto is, at first glance, full of energy, compassion and ambition.

It speaks to many of the real challenges facing Croydon: crime, housing, transport, opportunity for young people and the need to restore pride in our borough. On paper, it is everything a manifesto should be.

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But scratch beneath the surface, and a far more troubling picture emerges.

This is not a serious plan for running Croydon Council. It is an uncosted pipedream – a classic example of where good intentions meet financial illiteracy.

At no point does the manifesto set out what these proposals will cost, how they will be funded, or what trade-offs will be required to deliver them. That is not a minor omission. It is the central test of whether any political programme is credible – and it is a test this manifesto fails completely.

Croydon is not operating in normal circumstances. The council has issued multiple Section 114 notices, is burdened with enormous debt and remains reliant on ongoing Exceptional Financial Support simply to balance the books. The government-appointed Commissioners are explicit that Croydon remains one of the most financially distressed in the country and continues to face a structural deficit requiring tens of millions of pounds every year just to stand still.

In that context, a responsible manifesto would focus on how that can be resolved.

Instead, what we have with Davis’s manifesto is a long list of new initiatives, new teams, new programmes, new pilots and new entitlements – all presented as if the financial crisis does not exist.

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We are promised initiatives funded by fines, as if the debacle over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods has taught us nothing. We are promised free or subsidised schemes, as though there is a hidden pot of money waiting to be tapped. We are promised festivals, training programmes, expanded services and new partnerships, without any explanation of who pays for them once the headlines fade.

Even more concerning is the repeated blurring of what the Mayor of Croydon can actually deliver.

Large parts of the manifesto rely on decisions made by other bodies – Transport for London, the Department for Transport, the NHS, the police, schools, private developers and investors. Rowenna Davis is promising things she is unable to deliver; with money we simply don’t have.

A Mayor can lobby, convene and advocate – but they cannot compel rail operators to run more trains, cannot direct the police, cannot rewrite school policy and they cannot force developers to build. Promising these outcomes as if they are within direct control is not just optimistic – it is misleading.

And that matters, because Croydon has been here before.

Loss of trust: Tory Jason Perry has failed to deliver on his 2022 promises and has normalised the financial crisis

The previous Labour administration left behind a legacy of reckless borrowing, weak governance and a culture described by auditors as “collective corporate blindness” to the scale of the financial crisis. That is not political rhetoric; it is the formal conclusion of the council’s own external auditors.

Residents were told then that ambitious investment would transform the borough.

Instead, it left a bankrupt borough.

In 2022, when he was elected Mayor, Conservative Jason Perry promised to fix the finances. He pledged a fresh start and a firm grip on the finances. Four years on, residents can see for themselves that this has not been delivered. Council Tax has risen sharply, services have been cut and the council remains dependent on borrowing just to function.

The crisis has not been resolved – it has been normalised.

Now Labour is back, offering another set of promises that do not add up.

Croydon cannot afford another cycle of over-promising and under-delivering. It cannot afford another administration that confuses aspiration with execution, or rhetoric with reality.

Because the truth is simple and unavoidable: unless we solve the financial crisis, Croydon will continue to decline.

No number of initiatives, pilot schemes or glossy promises will change that. If the council cannot live within its means, if it cannot regain control of its cost base, if it cannot restore financial credibility, then every other ambition – however well-intentioned – will fall away.

This is the reality that both Labour and the Conservatives have failed to confront.

And it is why I will not be publishing a manifesto filled with undeliverable pledges.

Croydon does not need another unfunded wish list. It needs leadership.

It needs a Mayor who understands finance, who understands risk and who is prepared to make the difficult decisions required to restore stability. It needs someone who recognises that rebuilding this borough starts not with promises, but with discipline, credibility and trust.

My commitment is simple.

I will be the Mayor that Croydon needs to get it out of the mess it has been left in by both Labour and the Conservatives – a Mayor with the skills, experience and judgement to turn this borough around, and to put it back on a sustainable footing for the future.

Because until we do that, nothing else matters.

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