‘Councils have gambled it all – now it’s time to cut vanity projects and slash top salaries,’ says Conor Holohan

In the commuter town of Woking, Surrey, a collection of skyscrapers tower above the modest town centre. These towers, part of the Victoria Square development, far from marking Woking on the map as a small commercial powerhouse, serve as monuments to misery for council taxpayers. The towers were the flagship disaster of Woking Council’s almost £2billion debt-fuelled investment aimed at turning the town into the Singapore of Surrey. Earlier this year, the council declared bankruptcy with a £1.2billion deficit, and overall debts are set to hit £2.6billon. Woking’s core funding is about £16million…

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