WARRINGTON Borough Council’s current level of debt totals £1.7 billion – but the value of its assets is worth £473 million more.

Concerns continue to be raised over the Labour-run council’s level of borrowing.

But Town Hall council chiefs continue to emphasise that this debt is backed by assets which generate income.

The council’s investment strategy has included a number of deals to buy properties, which generate income through rent.

Properties in the council’s property portfolio include Birchwood Park, which the council bought for £211 million in 2017.

Other sites in its portfolio include Pure Gym on Fennel Street, Matalan, the former DW Sports site and Eddie Stobart, as well as others outside the town including Sainsbury’s in Sale, Tesco in Widnes and Asda in Cheadle Hulme.

The council has confirmed that its borrowing currently stands at £1.7 billion, with the current value of its assets totalling £2.173 billion.

A spokesman said: “We have always been committed in carrying out appropriate due diligence before increasing our borrowing. We are happy with the overall level of borrowing, as that is set within the prudential indicators part of the budget process which is reviewed at full council each year.

“Within that level and those indicators, the Cabinet look at individual investments with a full due diligence process undertaken for each.

“We are seen as an exemplar local authority regarding our due diligence – the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy published a national case study regarding our due diligence systems, which we constantly keep under review.”

Warrington South MP Andy Carter has expressed concerns.

He said: “The council’s extraordinary level of borrowing is concerning for us all and of course we’ll only really know the real value of the council’s assets when they’re put up for sale and we see what other people are actually prepared to pay.”

“Government have taken action recently to change the rules related to council borrowing, loans from the public works loans body should be used to fund infrastructure in Warrington and quite rightly people are asking why we’ve spent money on an energy company which isn’t making any profit or on a loss-making bank when local facilities need urgent investment.

“The real problem here is that deals have been done behind closed doors, using public money, the auditors are now refusing to sign off the accounts and there’s no transparency, with very reasonable questions being raised by councillors and members of the public being unanswered.”