WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, on the grim budget report from the borough’s failed Mayor
After almost five years in charge at Croydon Town Hall, Mayor Jason Perry has made a public admission of failure.
“It remains difficult to see a sustainable route out of Exceptional Financial Support without government intervention,” the Tory Mayor has written in his latest draft budget report. According to Perry, without some form of debt write-off, he is incapable of running the council’s finances without tens of millions of pounds more in government bail-outs.
Part-time Perry pays himself £86,000 per year as the borough’s “executive” Mayor. But in his draft budget report, which was published today, he has ruled out any wage freeze or pay cuts for council staff next year.
But he will go ahead and hike Council Tax by the maximum allowed.
That 4.99% increase next April will mean that since Tory Perry has been Croydon’s Mayor, he has hiked Council Tax by
39.7%.
Yet in the same period since 2023, under Mayor Perry, our cash-strapped council’s debt has increased, from £1.4billion to £1.7billion.
The decision to increase Council Tax next April comes in the report published ahead of next week’s council cabinet meeting.
Any Council Tax increase above the 4.99% government cap requires special permission from Westminster, or a referendum among residents. In 2023, Mayor Perry actively sought permission from Tory Secretary of State Michael Gove for a 15% Council Tax increase. Perry has increased Council Tax by 4.99% every year since, and will do so again in April, according to his latest budget report.
Croydon Council has needed multi-million-pound bail-outs from government every year under failed Mayor Perry, as he has consistently busted his budgets. As a result, in July 2025, the government sent in a team of Commissioners to oversee Croydon’s financial management.
A fourth successive 5% ratchet of Croydon’s Council Tax in April 2027 will see the residents of a typical Band D property having to pay £2,729.91 per year – £130 more than this year’s Council Tax bill.
This is based on the Croydon Council total Band D rate for the 2026-2027 financial year, which is £2,599.91 – comprising £1,758.47 for Croydon services, £330.93 for the Adult Social Care levy, and £510.51 for the Greater London Authority precept.
Pay more, get less: based on this year’s Council Tax bills, some households could be paying £259 more from April 2027
The 2027-2028 council budget will be the first to have been delivered fully by Conrad Hall, Croydon’s “corporate director of resources”, who started work in that role as an interim in January this year.
Now confirmed in that job permanently Hall, together with Mayor Perry’s cabinet member for finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, have extended this year’s draft financial plan to include a “medium-term financial strategy”, or what the lanyard class likes to refer to as their “MTFS”, through to 2031 – 11 years after the initial collapse of the council’s finances.
Permanent appointment: Croydon’s new-ish finance chief, Conrad Hall
Mayor Perry is supposed to have written the draft budget’s preamble.
Porkie pie Perry describes the report as “an early and honest assessment of Croydon’s financial position over the period to 2031”. Which would make a change.
“The challenge remains enormous,” according to Perry, who in 2021 promised that he would “fix the finances”.
“Croydon is still one of London’s most financially stressed councils…”, Perry means “broke”, “… and has relied on Exceptional Financial Support since 2020.”
What Perry fails to state is that on his watch, Croydon has borrowed an extra £330million. The EFS across the four years before Perry was in charge was £171million.
Perry’s got excuses for his financial failure. “Rising demand in adult and children’s social care, temporary accommodation and SEND continues to place severe pressure on our budget… This draft considers every credible option and sets out clearly what we propose
to do, what requires further work and what we have ruled out.
Croydon on tick: the council’s borrowing has got much worse since Mayor Perry took charge at the Town Hall in 2022
“We will reform high-cost services, manage demand earlier, reduce reliance on agency staff and bring Croydon’s costs closer to the London average.”
Having hiked Council Tax by 33% between 2023 and this April, Perry now tries to suggest that increasing it by another 5% in 2027 is in some way doing Croydon’s long-suffering residents a favour. “We will not increase Council Tax above the referendum limit.”
And there’s no way he’s going to squeeze a bit of added value out of his own £86,000 council salary, or the huge pay packets of senior execs in Fisher’s Folly: the council is in the process of interviewing short-listed candidates for the permanent position of chief executive, where the salary on offer is £275,000 – more than one-third increased on what was paid to Katherine Kerswell, who quit the job a year ago.
“We have… rejected proposals for a staff pay freeze or pay cuts because of the damage they could cause to recruitment, morale and frontline services,” according to Perry.
Perry covers his arse as usual by saying that “some assumptions will change before February”, while promising real consultation, scrutiny “and proper equalities assessments”, elements of local administration that he has routinely avoided throughout his time in charge at the Town Hall.
Out of his depth: even Jason Perry is now admitting that he’s completely useless
But six months since he was re-elected as Mayor, Perry’s conclusion is that he cannot do the job. Claiming his draft budget “demonstrates that Croydon is confronting its problems” and is “building a credible case for the government support needed”, Perry makes a public admission: “It remains difficult to see a sustainable route out of Exceptional Financial Support without government intervention.”
After almost five years in power, Perry’s still begging for the debt write-off he was unable to secure from the Conservative government before the 2024 General Election.
And in the end, it’s Croydon residents who are picking up the bill.
Read more: Commissioners: council lacks focus and robust delivery plans
Read more: Perry admits he has failed in begging letter to Labour’s Rayner
Read more: Kerswell takes another pay-off as she quits as council’s CEO
Read more: Council’s agency staff bill includes £726 PER HOUR consultant
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