Causeway Coast and Glens Council reduces debt by £5m to £56.5m, councillors hear

The council’s debt now sits at £56.5m, compared to £61.3m last year. This has been attributed to “close financial monitoring of capital spend”.

It comes after councillors voted to bring in independent financial advisors in 2020 after confirming the council was £68.7m in debt. In a statement, they said this move was to provide “urgent and immediate assistance with the current rate setting process”.

The results for the year ending March 2023 were presented to the council at a meeting on Monday, September 25.

Chief executive David Jackson said the council inherited around £70m of debt from the legacy councils when they were merged in 2015 to form Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.

He said: “We’ve focused on this from day one and we’ve made good inroads. We need to continue with a rigorous, stringent approach to how we manage our finances.”