What is the cost of failure? The £9.5m cost of local government commissioners is just a drop in the ocean – a headline calculation of money paid to rescue teams sent into authorities after they fall over. It sounds like a lot but the cost of inaction, of allowing councils to meander along or double down on their decline, could be far more.
Maybe it is £500m. That is the bailout figure announced this week by the Government as it revealed plans for two new unitaries in Surrey. The figure barely touches the sides of the £1.5bn debt, where interest payments reached £170m last year alone.
