A Labour councillor has officially called for a debate on the “lessons learned” report on the loan to the i360 brokered by Brighton and Hove City Council.
Councillor Liz Loughran made a formal request for the report be included on the agenda for the next meeting when the council’s audit, standards and general purposes committee met yesterday (Tuesday, April 21).
The independent report by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) was not presented to the meeting despite a previous commitment from the council that it would be.
Cllr Lochran said the report covered key areas overseen by the audit, standards and general purposes committee such as governance, contract management, forecasting and risk management.
The lack of a public airing prompted pointed political comments from the Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, who accused the committee chairman, Green councillor Pete West, of “sulking” about the content.
After Cllr Loughran made her request, Cllr West said the report was “not complete”.
One of Cllr West’s concerns was that the report was written without contacting those involved in the original decision to broker a £36 million loan from the Public Works Loan Board to i360 developer Marks Barfield.
In response to Cllr Loughran, he said: “I have a slight problem with this because I don’t believe that report is completed yet. In my view, it is not yet complete.”
After discussions with the council’s legal boss Elizabeth Culbert, Cllr West said he would “get back” to Cllr Loughran when the agenda was put together for the next meeting, due on Tuesday, June 23.
The CIPFA report, which cost £5,000 to produce, said the council was sold “over-ambitious” projections of visitor numbers, revenues and profits.
The council kept the business case secret from the public when it decided to approve the £36 million loan to Marks Barfield, citing commercial confidentiality.
When the terms of the loan were agreed in 2014, the minority Green administration voted through the proposals with support from some but not all of the opposition Conservative group.
But the Labour group – who were the smallest party at the time – voted against the loan.
The council is now repaying the outstanding balance of the £36 million Public Works Loan Board loan at about £2.2 million a year over the next 15 years until 2041.
The i360 ceased trading in December 2024 when the company that owned the seafront tower filed for administration, leaving more than 100 people jobless just before Christmas.
The total debt had gone up to £51 million, including interest, when the council wrote off the amount owing early last year. This enabled the administrators of the business to sell the i360.
Leisure operator Nightcap bought the i360 for £150,000 from the administrators at Interpath Limited in February last year.
In May last year, Nightcap said it would honour the condition attached to the i360’s planning permission that 1 per cent of ticket sales be paid to the council.
