Barking & Dagenham Council Faces High Risk in Companies Governance
Barking and Dagenham Council is facing a High
risk in Companies Governance,
as identified by the Audit and Risk Committee. This risk highlights potential underperformance and failure to deliver business plans by key council entities, including BD Group, BD Energy, Be First, and Reside. The committee's review of the corporate risk register, updated in September 2026, flagged this issue as posing significant financial and reputational damage to the council.
The Companies Governance
risk specifically points to the underperformance of council-owned companies, which could lead to substantial financial and reputational damage. The primary reasons identified for this potential underperformance include underperformance and failure to deliver business plans.
For Be First, its model had to change due to cost of borrowing, overall Council debt level and the general viability constraints with new development (higher labour and construction costs, additional regulation costs etc)
. Reside has experienced teething problems
due to rapid growth, while BD Energy has faced challenges from drawing down a lot of capital funding at the beginning to set up these networks
. BD Group is contending with challenging financial conditions driven primarily by Group-level overheads, historic financing arrangements and accrued interest
.
Vanessa Bateman, Head of Assurance, presented the council's risk management strategy, which is due for review in early 2027. The risk management framework, approved in May 2025, will be encompassed in this review. A part-time risk officer post has been established to support this work.
The corporate risk register was updated in September 2026 and discussed at the Assurance Board. The report states that the register includes 13 risks rated as Very High, High, or Moderate.
The specific risk Companies Governance
is rated as High
.
Public reports pack Tuesday 06-Oct-2026 19.00 Audit and Risk Committee.pdf