A local authority has been hailed as a “good example” despite having debt 45 times their spending power.

The long-awaited independent deep dive into Eastleigh Borough Council’s financial woes has been published.

It was revealed at the start of this year that the authority has a debt of more than £350m, equalling £2,500 worth of debt per borough resident.

An external governance review was ordered by the council after it was issued a Best Value Notice (BVN) last December.

A review by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) and Local Partnerships (LP) was carried out in June 2024.

In a now published report, the reviewers noted the stable leadership of the council, which has been a Liberal Democrat led administration for more than two decades.

The council is pleased with the findings, but Paul Holmes, Conservative MP for Hamble Valley, said they beggar belief.

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The CfGS report said: “These investments have enabled it to minimise council tax increases for many years, and successfully manage its finances.”

It was found the “concentration of decision making” in relation to company boards is limited to a small number of senior individuals.

This includes the leader and deputy leader of the council and head of paid service.

The report read: “The need for common understanding and ownership of the shared responsibilities of governance is true in all councils, but particularly so here given the risk of the debt relative to its size as mentioned in the BVN.”

The council’s delivery of services was also reviewed, and this was undertaken by Solace In Business, who praised the council for being “accountable to its community” and a “good example”.

Paul Holmes disputed the findings.

He said: “Rather than being a good example, Eastleigh are cutting services to fund their £300,000 per month interest payments for One Horton Heath.

“I’ll continue to work with Government to make EBC accountable. Because ultimately my constituents are suffering with their woeful negligent attitude.”

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The council confirmed it is “striving for continuous improvement”, adding that the conclusion from the independent reviewers recognised that there is strengthened capacity within the council.

A spokesperson said: “There is good assurance that we will continue to meet our Best Value Duty in delivering services to our residents and businesses.

“This demonstrates our ability to expand into new areas of vital housing provision whilst maintaining existing services for all.”