Thurrock Council is borrowing more than 11 times its income with debt growing at “a frightening rate”, a Labour councillor has said.

The council’s borrowing record came under heavy scrutiny during a Full Council meeting on Thursday night following national reports that the authority’s debt has exceeded £1billion with little democratic oversight or transparency.

The debt is largely the result of loans taken from other councils so that Thurrock can invest in renewable energy schemes.

The Conservative-led administration claims that the returns from these investments have cushioned the council from the true impact of Covid-19 and resulted in more than a £30million boost to council finances, preventing cuts to services.

But Labour councillors say the borrowing has taken place with a “lack of openness and transparency” and “debt is growing at a frightening rate”.

At the meeting on Thursday, Labour leader Councillor John Kent said: “I am not against taking advantage of historically low interest rates in order to borrow to invest, to make returns that might help insulate us form the impact of austerity.

“It is something we did and it is something I welcome being continued. But it can’t be allowed to go unfettered. There has to be controls.

“There has been a lack of openness and transparency from start to finish.”

He continued: “We need these decisions to be made much more publicly and despite assurances from cabinet the draft accounts for last year show the council invested a further £113million with no consultation with opposition leaders and no opportunity for democratic or public scrutiny of that decision.

“And on February 12, cabinet came forward with the option to increase democratic oversight of investments. We are still waiting for their proposals.”

He further highlighted that new council documents show the council borrowed a further £100million, which he claims was also not reported to council leaders.

“We have a debt that is growing at a frightening rate. In March 2016, council debt stood at £335million, today it is £1.4billion, planned to go up to £2.2billion by 2023.

“That will be an increase of 520 per cent.

“Thurrock’s spending power is £123million so we are borrowing over 11 times our income and it will raise to 17 times out income. We have concerns that will not be sustainable.”

He added the council has borrowed from more than 150 other councils and is “borrowing from one authority to pay back the last”.

Labour councillor Gerard Rice said it feels like there are “smoke and mirrors” and the administration “must be transparent” rather than only having managers’ meetings where there are no minutes and the public does not have access.

However, Labour was the only party in the council chamber to take issue with the borrowing as Thurrock Independent councillors sided with the Conservatives.

Thurrock Independent councillor Garry Bryne said: “The beautiful thing I like about this business plan is you do it with someone else’s money.

“You take a pot that belongs to someone else and you end up with a bigger pot, which is yours.”

Conservative councillor James Halden said: “This has reaped dividends for the taxpayer.

“Our investments are paying out, the opposition isn’t happy. Two independent auditors signed off our accounts, the opposition isn’t happy.

“Our investments are not risky and based on property, the opposition isn’t happy.

“The investments are short term, cash in nature, not long term toxic hard debt yet the opposition isn’t happy.

“It is not the chamber’s job to make the opposition happy.”

He added the “investment strategy is working” and the borough has “bigger problems to worry about”.

Before the meeting took place the Local Bureau of Investigation, which originally broke the story about the borrowing, took to Twitter to state a source at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy had told them the borrowing was “clearly” prohibited.

This is because national government guidelines state that councils should not borrow more than or in advance of need, purely to profit from investments.