Solar firm collapses

[Swwils]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ify%20wall

Toucan gone the way of the dodo.

[Oldgreybeard]

Why on earth was a council, funded by council tax payers, acting as a bank and financing a business like this?

Councils only exist to provide services to the people that pay for them, they are not supposed to be financiers. What's more, my experience of dealing with local authorities makes me firmly believe that they couldn't find their backsides with both hands, let alone have enough understanding of the investment business to play at being investors. Not good enough for the leader of the council to walk away scot free, everyone involved needs to be held personally accountable for their actions.

I was a Parish Councillor (independent) for a while, and the thing that always focussed my mind was anything we were asked to fund. We had a fair degree of latitude, but I was always concerned that some of my fellow councillors seemed to feel that it was absolutely fine to hand out public money to their mates. Our clerk did her best to keep us in line, but clerks can only advise, and there were a few occasions when I felt that some of the spending decisions we made were inappropriate. We only had a very modest budget, just a few tens of thousands, though.

[Stinsy]

Why on earth was a council, funded by council tax payers, acting as a bank and financing a business like this?

Councils only exist to provide services to the people that pay for them, they are not supposed to be financiers. What's more, my experience of dealing with local authorities makes me firmly believe that they couldn't find their backsides with both hands, let alone have enough understanding of the investment business to play at being investors. Not good enough for the leader of the council to walk away scot free, everyone involved needs to be held personally accountable for their actions.

I was a Parish Councillor (independent) for a while, and the thing that always focussed my mind was anything we were asked to fund. We had a fair degree of latitude, but I was always concerned that some of my fellow councillors seemed to feel that it was absolutely fine to hand out public money to their mates. Our clerk did her best to keep us in line, but clerks can only advise, and there were a few occasions when I felt that some of the spending decisions we made were inappropriate. We only had a very modest budget, just a few tens of thousands, though.

I agree wholeheartedly!

[nowty]

On first glance I think how can such a company go bust at a time of record leccy prices ?

Then it appears the ringleader might be dodgy, very dodgy indeed.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/s ... as-it-gone

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ck-scandal

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... llion.html

A recent investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that Thurrock council in Essex, Toucan’s main creditor, borrowed hundreds of millions of pounds to invest in the solar farm scheme run by globetrotting financier Liam Kavanagh.

Rob Gledhill, who was leader of Thurrock council, resigned in September, with the government appointing a commissioner to manage the Conservative-run authority.

Gledhill stepped down after the council made investments that could cost taxpayers £200m. An assessment by Camdor Global Advisors, which was appointed by the council to review the portfolio, concluded the solar farms were valued at less than was needed for the authority to recoup its money.

Kavanagh’s firms received a reported £655m from Thurrock over four years to buy up the 53 sites.

The figure includes a £138m payment that reportedly never reached the scheme’s management company. Kavanagh has claimed the £138m was “properly recorded” on his company’s balance sheet and the money was not specifically allocated for investment in solar farms.

Kavanagh, who reportedly owns a fleet of supercars, has said the solar farms could not be sold in their entirety to repay council debt.

[Mr Gus]

I read about it this morning, they need knee capping & a sset recovery to jump in.
Twats.

My only positive thought was for a proper forward thinking benevolent renewables firm to be tasked with running it & setting up an operational breadcrumb trail for publicly owned renewables the taxpayer have clearly paid for, however I await the next dodgy (avoidable) chapter of this being sold off cheap with no intervention from govt whose mates eye up a cheap readymade portfolio.

[nowty]

There is a recent update to this story on the BBC including a Panorama investigation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66340991

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p965


The inflated valuations convinced the council to invest a further £130m - but the money never reached the solar farms.

Leaked documents from Rockfire reveal how Mr Kavanagh spent council money on himself instead.

A ledger of payments shows £12m went to a company that bought Liam Kavanagh's private jet.

There are also payments totalling £2m for his Bugatti Chiron car and £16m for his yacht Heureka.

A further £40m disappears into a bank account labelled "other".

Mr Kavanagh is no longer living in the UK.

[Mr Gus]

The idiot council leader jumped off a tower block yet!?

[Joeboy]

The idiot council leader jumped off a tower block yet!?

That's too much Gus. Rein it in.
For perspective, we have had two family suicides since Dec, you never know who is living what, decorum...

[Swwils]

Audit commission was abolished in 2015. Councils are allowed to "take risks" and do this.

We're these UK solar farms? If so then the entire thing is laughable.

[Marcus]

I expect the councillors involved are of the Liz Truss-esq "my plan was prefecty rational - it's everyone else who's got it wrong" opinion.

I was wondering though if this Mr Clerk of the council was just an idiot playing fast and loose with someone else's money, or if he had some connection (or deal) with this Mr Kavanagh?