Mayor of Croydon, Jason Perry, has said the devastating audit findings in neighbouring Lambeth are a “wake-up call” for residents across South London - and clear evidence of why Croydon cannot afford to return to Labour control.
Independent auditors Forvis Mazars have announced they will issue a disclaimed opinion on Lambeth’s 2024/25 accounts - the most severe judgement possible. Their report paints a picture of a council with no grip on its finances, its governance or its statutory duties.
Auditors found:
- Incomplete and unusable accounts, submitted multiple times and missing key statutory sections.
- Contradictions, errors and instability across successive drafts, requiring further rewrites.
- Overspends spiralling from £30–35m to £60.5m, due to predictable pressures such as interest costs and bad debt not being forecast.
- Temporary Accommodation costs exploding from £30m to £65m.
- Only 88% of planned savings delivered over three years, despite new savings targets of £46.3m for 2025/26.
- Usable reserves collapsing from £312m (2022/23) to £187m (2024/25), with just £5m left in unallocated General Fund reserves.
- Every single statutory recommendation from earlier in 2025 marked “unsatisfactory”.
- Long-running governance failures at Homes for Lambeth, unresolved since 2021/22.
- Significant weaknesses across all Value for Money areas, with no assurance the council is operating with proper controls.
Mayor Perry said:
What is happening in Lambeth is exactly the pattern Croydon suffered under Labour. The auditors describe a council with no grip on its accounts, no control over its spending, collapsing reserves and a complete failure to act on repeated warnings. Croydon lived through this once, and we know the damage it caused - £1.6 billion of debt, financial collapse, and a borough pushed to the brink. Labour did not balance the books, they ignored professional advice, they allowed reserves to fall apart, and they bankrupted Croydon.
My administration has stabilised Croydon’s finances, balanced the books for two consecutive years, rebuilt reserves, restored proper controls and secured over £1.2 billion of inward investment. We are getting our borough back on track - but Lambeth’s meltdown shows exactly what happens when Labour is handed the keys to a council. This isn’t an isolated problem. We’ve seen the same pattern in Birmingham, Nottingham, and now Lambeth. Wherever Labour governs, the finances unravel and residents pay the price.
Croydon cannot go back to that. Lambeth is the clearest warning yet. We know where Labour leadership leads - and we are still working hard to repair the damage they left behind here. We cannot risk repeating history.
