Eastbourne councillor condemns Borough Council following independent report into finances
Eastbourne Borough Council’s Conservative opposition has criticised the council following the publication of an independent report into the council’s finances.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) report, published in March 2025, revealed that the council’s debt servicing costs now total more than £7.2 million a year — more than 71% of its total council tax income.
The report stated: “Eastbourne Borough Council (EBC) find themselves in a precarious financial position. The impact of significant increased demand for emergency and temporary accommodation coupled with tourism income not recovering post pandemic has left the council needing to request Exceptional Financial support (EFS).
"The increase in interest rates has increased their borrowing costs significantly to a level that is not sustainable.
"The council does clearly recognise this position and have already taken difficult decisions and action to try and get the council in a financially sustainable position.
“However, the financial position at the time of this review indicated that the action taken already and the planned action is unlikely to deliver the desired savings for 2024-25 without further action and/or the further use of reserves.”
Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Robert Smart, said: “This is the third major CIPFA report into Eastbourne Council’s finances, and it confirms what we’ve said all along, that we’re in this mess not because of bad luck or central government, but because of years of poor local leadership.
“The council’s debts have spiralled and reserves have been drained.
"Residents now face a future of higher council tax, disappearing services, and deteriorating infrastructure.”
In response Eastbourne Borough Council leader Stephen Holt said the authority was taking the ‘difficult decisions necessary to keep services open for our residents and visitors’.
Cllr Holt said: “CIPFA identified soaring homelessness costs as the root cause of the financial pressures being managed in Eastbourne.
"They also recognised that the council is ‘committed to ensuring service delivery is maintained, avoiding the closure of facilities’ and ‘the excellent work’ to bring down the number of families in temporary accommodation.
“Conservative colleagues at East Sussex County Council are forecasting a £71 million deficit in their budget and cutting vital services for vulnerable people in Eastbourne, as well as urgently seeking Exceptional Financial Support (EFS).
“In Eastbourne we are taking the difficult decisions necessary to keep services open for our residents and visitors, and I will continue to call for fundamental changes in the way government funds local government.”