Durham council leader Andrew Husband defends business debts

Andrew Husband insisted “there is no suggestion I have done anything wrong” and blamed the Government’s economic management during the Covid pandemic.

Several liquidated companies currently and formerly owned by the council leader racked up huge debts. 

Two existing companies owned by Cllr Husband owe more than £500,000 in unpaid tax, government-backed Covid loans and staff wages. 

Andrew Husband, Reform council leader at Durham County Council. (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

Responding to criticism of his financial record, Mr Husband said: “During Covid, bad government shut down the economy and of course that caused huge problems for all sorts of businesses, especially in hospitality. 

“There is no suggestion I have done anything wrong. What is clear, I decided to quite rightly exit from hospitality and all associated businesses. I am not responsible for subsequent failures years and years after.”

Liquidators for United Hygiene and Catering Equipment — a firm that supplied equipment to schools and hospitals — said there would be “no funds available” to pay former employees their holiday and redundancy entitlements. The company reportedly had debts exceeding £1 million when Husband applied for it to be wound up in May 2023.

In July 2025, Cllr Husband’s second business UHC Lesiure, which owned the Red Lion pub in Plawsworth, County Durham, was placed in administration. Liquidators reported that the company owed HMRC £470,000 in VAT, national insurance and PAYE contributions.

Cllr Husband said: “United Hygiene was profitable right up to the year it closed. Even after a closure, the facts are it was a net contributor to the public purse.

“All staff got paid. I was one of the biggest creditors. Bank debts with personal guarantees were negotiated and settled.”

On his decision to close the pub, Cllr Husband said it had just £30,000 in the bank. 

He added: “A fire had ravaged the property [in] December 2024 and we lost most of the Christmas trade. National Grid and the brewery just passed the buck over liability. I just said: ‘I’m out.’”

The Reform councillor for Chester-le-Street North is also connected to two former companies that later entered liquidation owing a further £364,000. 

Cllr Husband was previously the director of UHC Hotels Ltd, which owned The Moorings hotel near Pelton Fell, but stepped down in April 2022. By the end of that year, liquidators had been appointed, reporting debts of £85,000 — including £24,780 owed to HMRC and £13,000 to Durham County Council.

Another firm, Restaurant Kitchen, also entered liquidation with debts of £279,000, including unpaid wages owed to former staff.

Cllr Husband currently spearheads Reform in County Durham after the party won 65 seats out of 98 in May’s local elections. It currently has 62 elected councillors. 

He stood as a Conservative candidate in the 2021 Durham County Council local elections during the Covid pandemic but said he later resigned from the party “due to bad government”. 

Defending his record, the newly-elected leader, praised by Reform as ‘a business leader with a proven track record’, added: “My success spans a near 30-year career in high-level senior roles with blue-chip companies. Self-made, businesses built from scratch and a track record of generating the best part of £20 million of new business over a decade.

“You learn as much in failure as you do in success. Bad government are at fault and bad government got me into politics, and here we are. Karma.”