SCC is not currently in a position to provide financial support to a credit union (23rd March)

As is well known, Surrey County Council has been consistently under funded by central government for over a decade. We are forced to borrow monies to pay for the building of extra schools; we do not get sufficient resources from Whitehall to pay for the various government initiatives that we are asked to implement; and we have often pointed out that the government’s provision for highways is nothing short of a scandal.

We are not, at the present time, in a position to offer a subordinated loan to a credit union, no matter how worthy its objectives.

Surrey County Council is not a banking business and the Council Tax payer would not thank us for investing monies that we don’t have in a credit union.

We wish the Credit Union well in its endeavours, and this issue can always be revisited in the future, but at the moment we are unable to support this venture” – David Hodge, Deputy Leader.