Council borrowing controls: protecting taxpayers or constraining growth?

So David, on 28th of May, the government launched a consultation on a new capital risk framework to identify councils at risk of financial collapse.

Six councils, including Birmingham, remain under Section 114 intervention, with 37 others receiving around £2 billion in exceptional financial support.

Ministers frame this as taxpayer protection, citing Woking and Thurrock, but the proposed metrics go much wider, tracking councils' investments, debt and revenue, and extending to combined authorities just as integrated settlements are meant to increase mayoral flexibility.

The Public Works Loans Board has long enabled low-cost borrowing for regeneration and place investment.

Tight thresholds could now limit how councils and MCAs use it, making some projects unfinanceable in places already short of private capital.

This tension between financial discipline and fiscal capacity to invest in place is central to this podcast.

Tightening rules around a flawed system, using Woking as the justification, risks distracting from deeper reform.

So David, with this technocratic consultation open until 6th of August, how should our sector respond to it?