Reform-run Kent council accused of fabricating £40m net zero savings | Reform UK

Reform England’s flagship council has been accused of telling a “blatant lie” after it was found that claims of savings of around £40 million from net zero were based on hypothetical projects for which no documentation existed.

Kent county council, which has an annual budget of £2.5 billion, is one of 10 county councils over which Nigel Farage’s party has direct control and is seen as a test case for whether the rebel party can govern competently.

Reform council leader Linden Kemkaran promised shortly after being elected that the party’s “local government efficiency department”, or Dolge, would maintain a “laser-like focus on value for money”.

The council’s leadership claimed to have found savings of £100 million; £39.5 million of this came from two net-zero-linked projects: £32 million by scrapping a program to make properties more environmentally friendly and £7.5 million by not electrifying the council’s vehicle fleet until 2030.

After Kemkaran revealed them at last July’s council meeting, Kent Labor MP Polly Billington launched a months-long battle with the council, demanding details of the apparent savings through a freedom of information request.

The final response added that the two projects were documented in two lines of the “potential capital projects” section of the council’s 2025-26 budget plans, but there was no business case or funding identified.

Billington said the response showed Kemkaran’s claims about savings were “a blatant lie”.

“These so-called canceled net zero projects never existed and the fantastic savings figure of £39.5 million he achieved is entirely something he made up.

Billington accused Kemkaran of trying to claim credit for “fantastic” savings for political reasons.

“The truth is that Reform had no plans to save money for Kent county council and now instead of admitting their council is in chaos they are lying to people and increasing council tax to cover up their mess. Linden Kemkaran needs to stop selling these fake figures and focus on providing betting services to the people of Kent.”

The council rejected this assessment, saying the only details about the projects were two lines attached to the budget document and that they had not been approved or subject to business case, but that they were a “future cost avoidance measure” and therefore legitimate to claim as savings.

The row comes after a Reform councilor was tasked with finding major savings at the council he admitted this The party did not face any significant losses when it took over the local government last year.

Paul Chamberlain, who headed Kent’s Elon Musk-style local government efficiency department, later apologized for the “error of judgment” in comments and left his post.

A spokesman for the city said: “Kent county council categorically denies any allegations of impropriety, fabricated figures or attempts to mislead. “As we have made clear in our previous correspondence and FoI response, the figures referred to relate to forward-looking assumptions in the published budget book and not to approved or designed projects.

“The two items quoted are listed in the potential capital projects section – high-level, unfunded and unapproved possibilities for which no business case exists. Local authorities routinely include such indicative items in medium-term planning. The decision not to progress them is therefore a future cost avoidance measure reflecting borrowing and expenditure that the council will no longer have to incur.”

The council also sent a separate statement from Kemkaran’s political advisor, Michael Hadwen. His appointment late last year was condemned as a waste of money by the council’s Liberal Democrat group. They also expressed concern about Hadwen’s previous social media posts expressing support for Enoch Powell’s ideas on immigration.

Hadwen’s statement said: “Only bubble politics in Westminster can stop waste before it happens, which will be interpreted as fraud. “Reform has prevented bad spending and we make no apologies for that.

“This story is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the workings of public finances and a deliberate attempt to mislead readers… Polly Billington’s claim that these projects ‘never existed’ is patently false.”