Communities secretary James Brokenshire has moved to beef up accountability in local government, The MJ has learned.
Mr Brokenshire has written to the Local Government Association (LGA) and chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee outlining plans to boost governance.
Now The MJ understands that the Government plans to introduce a clause into the LGA’s funding from Whitehall to ensure a quarter of improvement cash is spent on outsourced services – rising to half at a later stage.
The change comes after the emergence of two letters from Mr Brokenshire to LGA chairman Lord Porter and HCLG committee chair Clive Betts pledging to improve oversight of local authority governance.
