Thurrock Council files claim against 23 councils, to recover approximately £40m lost through investments assured by industry body APSE

Thurrock Council has today (Friday 15 November 2024) filed a claim against 23 councils that are members of the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), after a 'standstill' agreement was not reached between Thurrock and the other councils. The council will be moving immediately to secure an order to stay those proceedings to minimise costs for all involved and to allow the council to focus on other recovery options.

The council's claim relates to the valuation by APSE of investments made by Thurrock with an individual called Liam Kavanagh and companies associated with him operating under the name Rockfire Energy.

The council's case is that valuations of solar assets undertaken on a commercial basis by APSE and which APSE allowed the council to rely upon, were negligent and overvalued those assets. As a consequence of relying on those valuations the council did not have adequate security for the value of the investments made with Liam Kavanagh and companies within the Rockfire group between 2017 and 2020. It is the council's case that this has led to significant financial losses to Thurrock with negative impact on taxpayers and service users. While the council's primary focus is on recovering money from Mr Kavanagh (and his associated companies) who sought to line his own pockets from the public purse, we also have a duty to pursue those whose actions led to the poor investments.

Cllr John Kent, Leader of Thurrock Council, said: "Since we raised our legal concerns about the valuations with APSE in September 2023, we have explained that the council has no option but to pursue the millions of pounds of public money that was lost through poor investments. APSE provided inaccurate valuations that gave the council misplaced confidence in its investments, and so they must take responsibility for that, otherwise why would anyone seek such advice in the first place?

"We know what a challenging time this is for all councils, and we never wanted to pursue individual councils, but unfortunately APSE didn't have adequate insurance or protection in place, meaning that its member councils are liable for consequences of decisions taken by APSE. We will immediately be applying to the courts to pause the action while we pursue Kavanagh, but we had no choice but to file the claim by the deadline, or risk never having the opportunity to recover Thurrock's money."