Wiltshire Council is to commission an independent review of its wholly owned housing companies Stone Circle, after claims emerged that they owe the council more than £53m and have other liabilities of over a £11M.
Who are the Stone Circle companies?
Stone Circle is Wiltshire Council’s local housing group, set up in 2019 to help provide more affordable homes across the county while also generating a financial return that could be reinvested into local housing. In simple terms, it was designed to sit between public purpose and commercial delivery: using council-backed investment (AKA taxpayers’ money) to buy or develop homes for people who need rents below the open market rate but may not qualify for traditional council housing.
Stone circle is split onto a number of companies which have different roles. Two of these are: –
- Stone Circle Housing Company focuses on acquiring residential properties and letting them at affordable rents, primarily for key workers such as NHS staff, teachers and emergency services personnel.
- Stone Circle Development Company was created to build homes, including on council-owned land, with a stated aim of bringing forward new housing while supporting wider social housing objectives.
That original mission is important because it explains why the current controversy matters. Stone Circle was not meant to be just another property venture; it was presented as a way to tackle local housing need, support key workers and strengthen communities. The debate now is whether the companies have delivered enough social value to justify the financial risks being carried by the council and, ultimately us the Wiltshire taxpayers.
Why this matters.
Currently Stone Circle have only one development in progress, their first development and its only nine houses. This development is at Priestly Grove in Calne on the site of the former Youth Centre. This development has been ongoing for about three years now and is nowhere near completion. Three years to NOT complete nine houses.
This is particularly frustrating for some Calne residents, not just those who live near the construction site and have to put up with all the disruption associated with house building, but it is delaying the transfer of a number of currently derelict play areas from Wiltshire Council to Calne Town Council, who want to refurbish and reopen the play areas.
This is because the transfer of the play areas is linked to a field adjacent to the development, which is also to be transferred to Calne Town Council, but which Wiltshire Council will not transfer until the development is complete due to access issues and the requirement to build an attenuation pond.
There is also currently a dispute between Stone Circle and a number of immediate neighbours over access to existing boundaries for maintenance purposes.
The issue is also very politically sensitive because the companies were created in 2019 under the council’s previous Conservative administration, although they are run by an independent board.
Both current Liberal Democrat council leader Ian Thorn and Conservative opposition leader Richard Clewer have previously served as directors of the Stone Circle companies, adding another layer of interest to the review.
The figures being discussed.
According to Thorn, the companies had liabilities of £11.33m as of March 2025. He also said loans and charges owed to the council stood at £53.36m. That was March 2025, its now July 2026, how much larger are the figures?
That is a long way from the original promise, Thorn argued. He said the previous Conservative administration had suggested that by 2026 the companies would be generating a £6m profit to support essential services and help ease council tax bills.
Instead, Thorn said, taxpayers are now “propping up” Stone Circle’s £53m debt to the council. He also said he had called for a review in February 2025 but that no action was taken by the Conservative administration at the time.
What the council says
The council has now promised an “independent full and forensic review” of the companies’ structure and performance.
Gavin Grant, the council’s cabinet member for finance, said the authority was not prejudging what the review might find. However, Grant said the council could not ignore a pattern of mounting financial difficulties that he claimed had previously been withheld from proper scrutiny by the audit and governance committee or full council.
He also said he hoped the findings would be published, which would give residents a clearer picture of how the companies have been performing.
The opposition response
Clewer has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he had not seen enough information about the companies to judge how accurate the figures were. He also pointed to wider pressures facing housing providers, saying there were “national challenges around the viability of funding of social and affordable rent housing” that had intensified over the past year.
In his view, rising building costs have made life difficult for development companies across the sector, not just Stone Circle. Clewer added that Stone Circle Housing still provides lower-cost homes for people in need, which he said brings savings and prevents other costs for the council.
What to watch for next
The key question now is what the independent review will reveal. Residents will be looking for clear answers on how the companies reached this point, whether the council’s exposure is sustainable, and what steps will be taken to protect public money while continuing to support much needed affordable housing for our key workers.
I have raised an FOI request with Wiltshire Council to try and understand if Stone Circle have achieved any of its aims in renting property at reduced rates to Key Workers, and to see if it has any assets, which could account for the £64million debt that supposedly exists.
When I get a response, I will update everyone here.