Will the collapse of councils be the next great scandal?

Last month India managed to land a spacecraft on the moon for a third of the price of refurbishing Hammersmith Bridge. This startling fact captures both New Delhi’s efficiency and the staggering incompetence of our local councils.

It took two years and £9 million (in real terms) to build the bridge. It is set to cost almost £200 million to spruce it up and the work may not be complete until 2030. Hammersmith Bridge has become the perfect metaphor for what’s gone wrong with government: the carelessness, inertia and lack of concern for public money that is rife across the country.

The bill for doing up Croydon council’s headquarters was greater per square metre than that for building the Shard, Britain’s tallest skyscraper. Croydon has gone bust three times in the past two years, each time issuing a Section 114 notice, the closest a council can come to bankruptcy. An independent review found that Croydon was led by people who ‘avoid unwelcome and inconvenient feedback’ and ‘failed to focus’ on the budgetary crisis engulfing them.