Six Christmases ago it was being trumpeted as the new council-owned company which would deliver higher-paid jobs, economic growth and 81 affordable homes to rent in Eden.
Fast forward 72 months and the fall from grace of Eden Council’s Heart of Cumbria Limited continues with confirmation that it will be put out of its misery in 2023.
The wholly council-owned company was launched in November 2016, with an initial £10,000 grant from the public kitty to cover operational expenses.
Controversially, it was soon handed £1.3 million of taxpayers’ money to meet its high-flying objectives of jobs, growth and property acquisition through a Persimmon Homes development.
By the time it is back under the council’s wing, the company will bring assets currently estimated at £320,000; circa £100,000 of annual income from rent-payers; and ownership of 58 properties. Asked this week for the number of those let or standing empty, a council spokesman said that will not be known until the transfer is complete.
And the question of whether taxpayers will ever see a proper return on the £1.3 million invested on their behalf also remains unanswered.
A council spokesman said information can only be confirmed once the transfer to Eden Council is done. In its early days, Heart of Cumbria Limited was rigorously defended by the council’s ruling Conservative administration as a means by which cash-strapped Eden could generate future income in austerity-hit Britain, where local authorities were receiving ever-decreasing government grants.
But setting up a company also raised legitimate questions about councils using taxpayers’ money to bankroll private enterprise.
Throughout its life, the Heart of Cumbria also attracted forensic scrutiny from councillors, chiefly local Liberal Democrats Mike Eyles and Robin Howse, and even Tory rebel John Lynch.
The death notice of the company was signed in February, 2021, at a virtual meeting of the council.
It followed a hefty confidential report into the Heart of Cumbria — not disclosed to public and press — being discussed behind closed doors.
The incoming Liberal Democrat-led coalition, which took control of the chamber from the Tories, agreed to bring the company’s assets, expenditure, income and liabilities all back in-house. Yet 21 more months have passed since that decision was made.
At a recent meeting in Penrith, councillors on the cross-party overview and scrutiny committee, were updated about the current state of play.
It had originally been hoped that the transfer might have been completed by April 2021.
But the council said that due to a combination of pressures on resources and the complexities of local government reorganisation, the process had not gone as quickly as planned. The council expects the transfer to be achieved in January 2023.
On April 1, Eden Council is being abolished under local government reorganisation. The local authorities serving Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow and Furness are all being merged into a single unitary.
So if there are any hidden hot potatoes, it will be the new Westmorland and Furness Council that picks them up. When the decision was taken to transfer, Eden bosses required a budget to take external legal advice, with £10,000 set aside.
The council confirmed that the cost of that advice, as of September 30, had been £3,000, so the full budget is not going to be needed.
