Grant Thornton UK Criticized as Auditor in Birmingham Bankruptcy

Grant Thornton’s UK affiliate was partly to blame in misdiagnosing the problems that led to the financial collapse of the country’s Birmingham City Council last year resulting in drastic cuts in public services such as refuse collection and street lighting, an academic report Monday said.

A “catalogue of problems and errors” led to the local authority for the UK’s second biggest city effectively declaring bankruptcy in 2023, saying that it couldn’t fulfill its legal obligation to balance its budget, Sheffield University’s Audit Reform Lab said in its report commissioned by the GMB, Unison and Unite trade unions. The academic research ...