“Kill off this Milton Keynes housing partnership,” say councillors despite concern over lack of details

But there was heavy criticism over a lack of information, including whether there is a financial risk to Milton Keynes Council over ending the partnership with Mears.

The finer details have yet to be confirmed between Mears, which wants its investment back, and the council, before the coup de grace comes for YourMK.

Councillors also said there was also no detail on what would happen to the council’s investment, which the committee heard was half of the £1million partnership.

The YourMK partnership had been responsible for a heavily criticised regeneration project and housing work across MK.

Now council officers say the Government has allowed local authorities to borrow money, and they think they can do a better job.

But the report discussed by the regeneration scrutiny on Thursday did not provide in-depth financial details.

Tory leader Alex Walker (Stantonbury) said the report showed a “complete lack of self-awareness by the council”.

And he said the Labour administration had been “obstructing YourMK every step of the way” after they had set it up in 2016.

“It has been pointing the finger at YourMK and has to learn the lessons, and not put all the blame on them.”

Cllr Walker also queried how he council’s £500,000 investment would be repaid. “I’m pretty confident that the £1 million went quickly. Where is the money coming from? It is not clear in the papers.”

And Cllr Rex Exon (Lib Dem, Bradwell) said: “We ought to be scrutinising. This was a divorce and we are giving our blessing without knowing about the divorce settlement.

“There are no figures for the cost implications, and it gives us nothing to scrutinise. We have nothing to comment on to cabinet which is making a decision.

“We haven’t scrutinised this at all and I think that’s a sad state of affairs.”

Cllr Charlie Wilson-Marklew (Lab, Stony Stratford) agreed that the report received by councillors “isn’t very helpful in trying to articulate the basis of the decision.”

But he said there is enough information to justify the decision to finally kill off YourMK.

“It hasn’t delivered, there has been no influx of development or talent and we should exit from it.”

He added that the whole thing had fallen through the cracks of scrutiny. “We did fail collectively to govern properly and scrutinise.”

And now he said there would be no escape for the council if regeneration and renewal work fails in the future.

“It’s nobody else’s fault but MKC if it doesn’t work.”

Cllr Sam Crooks (Lib Dem, Broughton), who chaired the meeting, said the committee recognised that the decision to end the partnership “probably has to go ahead.”

But the committee has concerns about the “limited financial information” and in particular possible cost, and therefore risk, implications for the council.

A formal decision to end the partnership is due to be made in July after outstanding contract matters have been settled.