Ahead of May 2026 Local Elections, Merton Council paid [cost to be added once LBM start publishing the 2026 monthly expenditure data, in 2023 Wandsworth Council under Labour paid out £27,000 to Peopletoo] Peopletoo to create a report detailing council finances after the recent sale of Chas 2013 Ltd, a standards certification company that the council used to own until 2022.
The one-off sale of the council asset has left the finances in a better place than a couple of years earlier when the Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Mark Allison announced “Merton Council is on the verge of going bust!” (see @MertonTV videoclip tweet)
Merton Council - Financial HealthcheckRead the 21 page report above.
The report consists of a single page human written Executive Summary, followed 5 pages of AI generated† Background and Context, a 3 page AI generated† Budget Performance report with much of it lifted from Council Meeting reports. The 5 page Merton’s Financial Performance in the London Context section pulls data from various sources to create bar charts to compare datasets from the Government Public Works Loan Board, ONS Office for National Statistics, CIPFA Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and Local Authority websites. The Critical Success Factors page is an AI generated† summary of often repeated administration phrases and talking points. Finally the Summary and Conclusions is a two paragraph 100% AI Generated† serving of “AI Slop”.
The report highlights Merton’s Council Tax charge as a median in the list of the 32 London Boroughs with neighbouring Wandsworth paying just 47% compared to Merton residents, and Kingston upon Thames residents paying 19% more after over a decade of yearly increases which continues again into 2026-27.