CIPFA has confirmed what Barnet Conservatives have been saying for years

Cllr Peter Zinkin says a central government-commissioned report on its “disastrous” finances should finally make Barnet Council face reality

Barnet Council's Colindale office and (inset) Tory group leader Peter Zinkin — Barnet Council’s Colindale office and (inset) Tory group leader Peter Zinkin

As a result of Barnet’s disastrous financial situation, the government commissioned an external assurance review to make sure that Barnet was doing all that it was supposed to do to restore Barnet’s financial position.

The review focused on governance, finance and delivery. These are all areas Barnet Conservatives have raised concerns about for many years. Too often those concerns were dismissed or ridiculed.

Now the independent review by CIPFA has confirmed many of the warnings we repeatedly made.

The report’s central conclusion is stark. Barnet’s problem is not a lack of strategies, plans or governance structures. If anything, there are too many. The real problem is the widening gap between strategy and delivery. CIPFA concludes that the council is better at identifying risks and problems than taking the action needed to address them.

This is precisely what Barnet Conservatives have been saying in Barnet Post articles for the past few years.

In November 2024, I warned that Labour’s claimed savings were largely fantasy and that the council faced a growing budget gap. In March 2025, I described Labour’s budget as a “desperate gamble” reliant on borrowing rather than a credible recovery plan.

Throughout 2025, I repeatedly highlighted the growing disconnect between reports, strategies and the reality facing residents. At the time these warnings were dismissed as opposition rhetoric. Today, CIPFA has independently reached many of the same conclusions.

The report also vindicates concerns we raised over scrutiny and decision-making. When Conservative councillors in the last few weeks called in the Dollis Valley decision, we raised concerns about resident engagement, financial exposure and the late publication of reports. CIPFA has now identified exactly the same issues, warning that large agenda packs, late papers and descriptive reporting undermine effective scrutiny.

Likewise, the report raises concerns about the council’s exposure through its capital programme, companies and joint ventures – an area where Conservatives have repeatedly sought greater transparency and accountability. CIPFA’s warning that governance arrangements have not kept pace with the scale of financial exposure should concern every resident.

Perhaps most significant is the report’s assessment of Barnet’s culture and leadership. CIPFA describes an organisation that has become cautious and slow to make difficult decisions – typical of a Labour administration. This reflects concerns we have expressed for years. Difficult decisions delayed do not become easier; they become more expensive.

However, the report is not without its weaknesses. While it rightly criticises the council for producing large volumes of paperwork and strategy documents, it is notably lighter on practical solutions. Barnet’s fundamental challenge is massive growth in demand running into hundreds of millions of pounds. The report offers relatively few tangible proposals capable of addressing a problem on that scale within the timescales required.

Indeed, CIPFA identifies only a handful of specific options that the council has not yet pursued. Two of the most prominent are further consideration of council tax increases and less frequent residual waste collections. Yet residents have made their views on these issues abundantly clear.

Barnet residents are already facing rising costs and have consistently opposed reductions to waste collection services. Under CIPFA’s direction these proposals will now form part of the discussion, but sadly, they are nowhere near sufficient to bridge the scale of the financial challenge facing the borough.

None of this is to say that Barnet’s problems exist in isolation. The Labour government’s Fair Funding Review and wider local government finance reforms have done nothing to ease pressures on authorities such as Barnet. If anything, they have increased the pressure on councils already struggling with rising demand and constrained resources.

Ultimately, that funding gap risks falling on residents through higher council tax and reduced universal services. The paradox that Barnet faces is that the excess demand comes from individuals entitled to support by statute but paid for by all residents whose universal services are being cut to pay for the statutory obligation to these individuals.

That is why we welcome this report. Not because it tells us anything we have not already said, but because it provides an independent assessment that can no longer be ignored.

The challenge facing Barnet today is not entirely of this administration’s making. Rising demand for adult social care, children’s services and temporary accommodation has placed enormous pressure on councils across the country. But Barnet’s position has undoubtedly been made worse by Labour’s failure to recognise the warning signs and act when action was still possible.

Too often difficult decisions were postponed; uncomfortable truths were ignored; and concerns raised by the opposition were dismissed. The result is the position we find ourselves in today.

Barnet can recover, but recovery will require honesty about the scale of the challenge, a relentless focus on delivery rather than announcements and endless strategy papers. Difficult decisions need to be taken before they become unavoidable. If there is one lesson from the CIPFA report, it is that if Labour ignore problems, it does not make them disappear. It only makes them harder and more expensive to solve.

Peter Zinkin is leader of Barnet Conservative group.

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