A council have been found to have misused nearly £2million in grant money.
Barking and Dagenham Council has admitted to misusing £1.8million of Government funding which was intended to improve public health in the east London borough.
The money provided through a public health grant from the Department of Health and Social Care, was supposed to be spent on stop smoking initiatives, tackling illegal vapes and improving health among schoolchildren.
Instead, an internal review found the money had been used for purposes outside the strict conditions attached to the grant.
The issue came to light following a review of public health spending commissioned by Barking and Dagenham Council in 2024.
Labour councillor, Maureen Worby, the council’s cabinet member for health, told members the findings had come as a “shock”.
She said: “It came as a shock that actually what we found in the end was that there was £1.8million of potential ineligible spend.”
She said early evidence suggested several departments had been spending the grant on areas it had not been allocated for.
An internal review at the council uncovered the significant misspend
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BARKING AND DAGENHAM COUNCIL
According to Ms Worby, the full scale of the problem only became clear once the review progressed, ultimately identifying £1.8million of what was described as “potential ineligible spend”.
Despite the scale of the misuse, the council will not be required to return the money directly to central Government.
Instead, ministers have told the local authority it must now find £1.8million from its own general budget and redirect the money to public health spending to make up for the error.
The council has said it will ensure the borough does not lose out overall, though it raised questions about pressure on already stretched local finances.
Barking and Dagenham council recently rolled out an e-bikes scheme
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INSTAGRAM / LBBDCOUNCIL
Public health grants are ringfenced under the National Health Service Act 2006, meaning the money can only be spent on specific, approved areas.
These include smoking cessation services, enforcement activity and health programmes aimed at children and young people.
However, the east London council’s view found multiple departments had dipped into the funding for uses that fell outside the legal boundaries.
Speaking at a scrutiny committee meeting, Matthew Cole, the council’s director of health, acknowledged there had been little oversight on the grant.
Mr Cole said he had distributed the grant to other departments without being able to see how their budgets were managed or how the money was ultimately spent.
He said: “I don’t think people understood the ringfence.
“They basically felt they were given the money and it was theirs.”
Despite the misuse, no council officers have faced disciplinary action.
Instead, the incident has been described internally as a “learning point” by Mr Cole, a characterisation that may raise eyebrows among taxpayers.
Ms Worby said the government has been reassured that the misspending was not deliberate.
She also pointed out that other councils had been ordered to repay misused grants, while Barking and Dagenham was allowed to retain the funds.
The council has now introduced stricter controls, including direct oversight by Mr Cole and formal agreements requiring departments to commit to specific deliverables.
Officials insist the new safeguards are robust and will prevent a repeat of the issue.
The £1.8million will now be reinvested into tackling public health inequalities in the borough.