The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has won a Freedom of Information battle to find out how Thurrock Council spent £1bn of public money, calling it a “victory for investigative journalism”. The Conservative-run Thurrock Council argued that divulging this information could be commercially damaging and its position was backed by the Information Commissioner’s Office on appeal. But the Bureau has now succeeded after taking the case to a tribunal with the backing of The Times, regional publishers Reach and Archant, the Local Government Chronicle, the Municipal Journal and freedom of expression group Index on Censorship. The tribunal ruled there was a “significant public interest in transparency in relation to the actions of councils borrowing for the purposes of making a profit”.