The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Exposing injustice | Sparking change
Search The Bureau Website
Stories
Explore
Global Health Big Tech Environment The Enablers Global Superbugs All Investigations… Bureau Local Open Resources News
About Us
Our Mission Impact Our People Use Our Work Our Funding Annual report Fact-checking at TBIJ The Trust for TBIJ
Newsletter Support Us Search
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

17.10.20

Local Power

Fraud allegations call £400m council investments into question

Rockfire Capital, the company at the centre of the Bureau’s investigation into Thurrock council’s investment spree, has gone into voluntary liquidation just as another business owned by the same man f...

09.10.20

Local Power

Spelthorne spending spree 'likely broke the law'

KPMG has refused to sign off Spelthorne council's accounts and suggested it could take the local authority to court over borrowing and investments in commercial property

10.07.20

Local Power

Thurrock mystery continues as council won’t say where more than £100m has gone

Council has continued to invest in renewable energy but the process lacks transparency

25.06.20

Local Power

Council gives WeWork £4.5m rent holiday as Covid crunch hits

Spelthorne borough council, which borrowed £1bn to spend on commercial property investments, has allowed a major tenant to put off paying millions in rent

10.06.20

Local Power

Spelthorne council leader who made billion-pound bet on property market ousted

After the Bureau exposed the council's risky investment strategy, Conservative councillors have voted to replace their leader

22.05.20

Local Power

Council borrowed £1bn from taxpayers to bet on British sunshine

Thurrock council has borrowed more than £1bn from other local authorities

22.05.20

Local Power

Rockfire Capital: a private firm with millions of pounds of public money

A business that marketed itself as an investment opportunity for local authorities has used taxpayers’ money to propel itself to the fore in the UK’s solar energy market

21.05.20

Local Power

Treasury bans billion-pound council property investments revealed by the Bureau

The Bureau has spent two years digging into council finances and found many had borrowed billions of pounds of public money to invest in commercial property

16.05.20

Local Power

Councils' bets on property market 'battered' by Covid-19 closures

The Bureau revealed in 2018 how councils had borrowed hundreds of millions to invest in commercial property, but coronavirus has put retail parks and shopping centres under extreme strain

11.10.19

Local Power

Interest hike for council loans “could stop regeneration”

The Treasury has raised the interest rate on funding from the Public Works Loan Board after the Bureau reported that councils were using the money to invest heavily in commercial property

11.09.19

Local Power

Councils ignoring public right to audit accounts

The Bureau Local sent volunteers and reporters to exercise their right to see local authority accounts, but soon found obstructions and ignorance of the law

09.09.19

Local Power

Government turns blind eye as council sells “family silver” to pay bills

Despite the Bureau revealing that Peterborough council had potentially breached guidelines on selling public assets, the government has decided to take no further action

29.05.19

Local Power

Grenfell tower timeline: The key events

A timeline giving details of when key decisions about the Grenfell tower refurbishment were made by Kensington and Chelsea council

29.05.19

Local Power

Exclusive: Grenfell council had £129M it could have spent on tower renovation

Investigation reveals Kensington and Chelsea Council had a large pot of money that it could have used on the refurbishment, yet the budget was cut and cheaper cladding used

27.04.19

Local Power

Auditors call council's billion pound property "roulette" into question

Spelthorne auditors have raised red flags about whether the £385 million purchase of a BP research site was value for money for the council

05.03.19

Local Power

Has Peterborough Council unlawfully used money raised from selling public spaces?

Our investigation reveals Peterborough Council may have used £23 million raised from selling public assets to help pay its running costs, which is forbidden under government regulations.

04.03.19

Local Power

Revealed: The thousands of public spaces lost to the council funding crisis

Libraries, playgrounds, and community centres are being sold by councils as they struggle to stay afloat, with many using the proceeds to pay for redundancies

04.12.18

Local Power

How the public is kept in the dark over councils' multi-million pound property deals

As councils become major players in the UK property market, purchases worth hundreds of millions of pounds are being signed off behind closed doors without public scrutiny.

04.12.18

Local Power

The public service gamble: Councils borrowing billions to play the property market

A four-month investigation reveals the steep rise in councils across the country racking up debt to finance real estate purchases

Worcestershire County Hall

16.04.18

Local Power

Worcestershire buried report raising “urgent” concern over finances

Fifth county council at risk with independent reviewers stating need for “radical overhaul”

Previous Page Next Page

Projects

Environment Local Power Big Tech The Enablers Global Health All Projects

Got a Story?

For Journalists Contacting the Bureau How to Talk to a Journalist

About

About Us Contact Us Use Our Work Our Funding Financials Awards Privacy Policy The Trust for TBIJ Employment

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism PO Box 76421 London EC2P 2SH

Email: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

✕

Corporations

  • Binary Options
  • Corporate Watch
  • Fixed-Odds Betting Machines
  • High Cost Credit
  • High Frequency Trading
  • Smoke Screen

Food and Drugs

  • Big Tobacco
  • Environment
  • Global Health

Justice

  • Deaths in Police Custody
  • Investigating Rape
  • Joint Enterprise
  • Rough Justice

Human Rights

  • CIA Torture
  • Citizenship Revoked
  • Drone Warfare
  • Iraq War Logs
  • Marikana Massacre
  • Migration Crisis
  • Privatised War
  • Shadow Wars
  • Surveillance State

PR and Spin

  • Fake News
  • Lobbying’s Hidden Influence

State Scrutiny

  • Care Sector
  • Europe Under Scrutiny
  • Health
  • Political Party Funding
  • Public Sector Pay
  • Royal Mail
  • Rulers’ Riches
  • Scrutinising Government
  • Teaching
  • The Enablers

Bureau Local

  • Local Stories
  • Open Resources
  • Cost of living crisis
  • Domestic Violence
  • Homelessness
  • Is Work Working?
  • Local Power
  • The Housing Crisis
  • The People’s Newsroom
  • UK Elections