VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
Bournemouth could borrow £57.5m to cover SEND deficit
30/01/2025 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has proposed borrowing £57.5m to tackle a funding gap for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision. |
Nine in 10 council housing budgets under financial stress
20/01/2025 Local authorities have warned in a new survey that they may be unable to balance their books because of pressure on their council housing budgets. |
Cheshire East asks to raise council tax by 9.99%
15/01/2025 Cash-strapped Cheshire East has asked the Government for permission to increase council tax by 9.99% for the 2025-26 financial year. |
Leeds proposes closing dozens of bowling greens
13/01/2025 Half of the council-run crown bowling greens in Leeds under plans to save nearly £275m over five years. |
Bristol proposes shutting museums amid £51m budget gap
10/01/2025 Bristol City Council has proposed permanently closing three museums in its bid to tackle a £51.6m budget gap for the next financial year. |
Derbyshire plans cuts amid £18m shortfall
03/01/2025 Derbyshire County Council has proposed a series of cuts in the face of an £18.6m shortfall for the next financial year. |
Windsor and Maidenhead wants 25% council tax increase amid section 114 warning
11/12/2024 Cash-strapped Windsor & Maidenhead BC has warned a section 114 notice is ‘almost inevitable' if it is blocked from raising council tax by a quarter. |
Council to axe 100 jobs in ‘most difficult budget’
11/12/2024 Derby City Council has proposed cutting more than 100 jobs in what it has called its ‘most difficult budget’. |
Councils' SEND deficits ‘could reach absurd levels’
09/12/2024 Local authority deficits for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision ‘could easily reach absurd levels’ without widespread reform, a think-tank has warned. |
Devon proposes £21,000 charge for school exclusions
09/12/2024 Devon County Council has put forward plans to charge schools £21,000 for every child they exclude. |
Oasis gigs to boost council's budget
05/12/2024 Manchester City Council is set to make £375,000 from performances at Heaton Park next year, including Oasis’s reunion gigs. |
Cheshire East says it has ‘no choice’ but to reduce bin collections
28/11/2024 Cheshire East Council plans to move to three-weekly residual waste collections in a bid to cut costs by £1m, despite local opposition. |
North Tyneside to cut 200 jobs
20/11/2024 North Tyneside Council has announced plans to cut 200 jobs as it grapples to balance its books. |
Worcestershire set for £12.5m overspend
14/11/2024 Worcestershire County Council must act to avoid a projected overspend of £12.5m this year, a report has warned. |
English councils face £9.3bn deficit by 2026-27
25/10/2024 New analysis has uncovered a £9.3bn funding shortfall facing councils in England by 2026-27. |
West Northants asks staff to consider redundancy
21/10/2024 West Northamptonshire Council has asked staff to consider voluntary redundancy, flexible retirement and reduced working hours in a bid to cut costs. |
One in four councils likely to request exceptional financial support
21/10/2024 One in four English councils believe they will have to apply for exceptional financial support (EFS) in the next two years without additional funding, research has revealed. |
Welsh councils face £559m budget gap
10/10/2024 Councils across Wales face ‘extraordinary’ budget pressures totalling an estimated £559m next year, according to the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA). |
Birmingham day centres set for axe
10/10/2024 Councillors in Birmingham have been advised to approve the closure of four day centres for disabled adults. |
Councils face £54bn funding deficit
02/10/2024 England’s local authorities face a funding shortfall of £54bn over the next five years, new research has revealed. |
Norfolk faces £45m budget gap
01/10/2024 Norfolk County Council is planning millions of pounds of cuts it does ‘not want to make’ in the face of a £44.75m deficit in its budget for next year. |
Swindon aims to sell assets for £21m
18/09/2024 Swindon Borough Council has agreed to sell commercial properties it owns in the hope of generating £21m. |
Lambeth warns of ‘drastic savings’ without help
18/09/2024 Lambeth Council has called for urgent help in the Government’s Budget next month, at a time it said ‘could not be more critical’ for local authorities. |
New waste tax could cost councils billions
17/09/2024 A proposed tax on the carbon emitted from burning waste could cost councils billions over the next decade, according to new analysis. |
Several London councils ‘edging closer towards effective bankruptcy’
12/09/2024 Boroughs in the capital are set to overspend by more than £600m this year as housing and homelessness pressures ‘wreak havoc’ on their finances, according to London Councils. |
‘People will be angry’: Council must find £11m to avoid S114
11/09/2024 North Somerset must take ‘radical’ action to avoid issuing a Section 114 notice, the authority has said in a stark warning. |
Derbyshire could charge parents for children in care
09/09/2024 Derbyshire County Council is considering charging parents whose children are taken into care as it faces ‘unprecedented’ financial difficulty. |
Wirral set to spend extra £1m on struggling SEND
05/09/2024 Wirral Council will consider spending an extra £1.1m on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision after it was ordered by the Government to improve. |
Public libraries in ‘crisis’ amid cuts
03/09/2024 More than 180 council-run libraries in the UK have either closed or been handed to volunteer groups since 2016, analysis by the BBC has revealed. |
Waverley to consult on ‘voluntary council tax’
30/08/2024 Waverley Borough Council is set to consider asking some residents to pay a ‘voluntary council tax’ to fund discretionary services. |
Sheffield faces £34m overspend
27/08/2024 Sheffield City Council is set to overspend by £34.3m this year amid ‘significant’ financial challenges, a report has revealed. |
Council to close tip amid £7m improvement costs
23/08/2024 Kirklees Council is set to close a household waste recycling centre (HWRC) to cut costs after discovering that work needed on the site would cost £7m. |
Cash-strapped council axes top member roles
22/08/2024 Somerset Council, which has declared a ‘financial emergency’, is cutting several senior member roles to save £36,000. |
Cheshire East sets out plan to tackle £100m deficit
16/08/2024 Plans to address a £100m budget gap over four years will be considered by Cheshire East councillors next week. |
Eastbourne warns of ‘extensive’ service cuts
14/08/2024 Eastbourne Borough Council has warned that rising costs of homelessness services have left it facing ‘extensive’ cuts to services. |
Newham raises alarm over ‘spiralling’ homelessness costs
06/08/2024 Newham Council has warned it may need government assistance due to the ‘spiralling’ costs of supporting homeless people. |
Landmark report finds SEND system ‘broken’
25/07/2024 Major reforms introduced a decade ago have failed to improve educational outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), a report has found. |
Councillors asked to sign off redundancy plans
24/07/2024 Proposals to save £12m a year by axing hundreds of job posts will be considered by councillors in Hertfordshire next week. |
£1m boost to road patching in East Sussex
16/07/2024 East Sussex County Council has committed an extra £1m to road patching, but acknowledged it would cost more than £300m to bring all its roads up to scratch. |
East Sussex could face £55m funding gap
10/07/2024 East Sussex County Council is already warning it could be left with a £55m deficit in its budget next year. |
Shropshire could cut 540 job posts
09/07/2024 Shropshire Council could cut 540 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts in a bid to cut costs by becoming a smaller organisation. |
Council to consider paying £47m extra for waste service
08/07/2024 Somerset Council will consider paying an extra £47m over six years for waste services after its contractor disclosed it was making significant losses in the area. |
Islington identifies £1.8bn housing shortfall
05/07/2024 Islington Council is facing a deficit ‘in excess of’ £1.8bn in its housing revenue account (HRA) over the next 30 years. |
Homelessness spending triples in eight years
02/07/2024 The proportion of councils’ total housing budget spent on homelessness and temporary accommodation has tripled since 2015, new analysis has revealed. |
Middlesbrough aims to recover £67m in debts
26/06/2024 Middlesbrough Council is progressing ‘thousands more’ debt cases after stepping up efforts to recover more than £67m. |
Leicester urged not to close half its family hubs
26/06/2024 Parents have launched a petition calling on Leicester City Council to drop plans to close six of its 12 children, young people and families centres. |
Public advised to use ‘personal lighting’ amid streetlight cuts
26/06/2024 A council in the outer Hebrides has advised people to consider using ‘personal lighting’ after announcing it would switch off streetlights earlier. |
IFS: Funding increases have not reversed austerity
10/06/2024 Councils in England have outspent cash boosts in recent years, leaving core funding 18% lower per person than at the start of the 2010s, think-tank reveals. |
North Yorkshire bans public questions at budget meetings
21/05/2024 Public participation will not be allowed at North Yorkshire’s budget meetings as part of a series of changes to the council’s constitution. |
Somerset to save £8m with 201 redundancies
16/05/2024 Somerset Council has accepted 201 redundancy applications, which it said would save more than £8m a year. |
Scottish councils’ debt is one-and-a-half times funding
08/04/2024 The debt of councils in Scotland is more than one-and-a-half times the latest local government funding settlement, the Scottish Conservatives have found. |
Brum consults on £2.3m library cuts
05/04/2024 Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council has launched a consultation on how it will cut £2.3m from its library budget. |
Homelessness inquiry launched by NAO
13/03/2024 The National Audit Office (NAO) has launched an inquiry into homelessness as the issue piles pressure on squeezed council budgets. |
Shropshire Council staff offered voluntary redundancy
12/03/2024 Staff at Shropshire Council have been offered voluntary redundancy as part of the local authority's plans to lose 300 full time jobs. |
Middlesbrough avoids ‘catastrophic’ s114 with approved budget
11/03/2024 Councillors in Middlesbrough have approved a budget with ‘savings and income generation plans’ worth £13.9m. |
Sheriff of Nottingham suspended from Labour
07/03/2024 The only Nottingham City councillor to vote against budget cuts has been suspended from the Labour Party. |
Watchdog warning over Moray's funding gap
07/03/2024 Moray Council must act quickly to shore up its finances, Audit Scotland has warned. |
Majority of northern councils face ‘financial failure’ within five years
01/03/2024 More than half of councils in the north of England are at risk of ‘financial failure’ within the next five years, analysis has found. |
Councils set for £2.5bn in exceptional financial support
29/02/2024 The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has agreed to grant 19 local authorities ‘in principle’ capitalisation directions worth almost £2.5bn. |
14 councils ‘likely’ to issue s114s next year
28/02/2024 More than half of councils are likely to issue a section 114 notice within the next parliament unless funding is reformed, senior local authority figures have warned. |
Vote planned for first UK coastal tourism tax
19/02/2024 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole hoteliers will vote on the introduction of a tourist tax as the authority withdraws direct funding amid budget pressures. |
Nottingham executive refuses to back budget cuts
14/02/2024 Executive members of cash-strapped Nottingham City Council have refused to recommend a report that sets out £20m in budget cuts. |
Council financial crisis ‘out of control’
31/01/2024 MPs have issued a stark warning on the ‘very real’ prospect of more councils in England ‘effectively going bust’ if the Government does not address a £4bn funding gap. |
DLUHC claims four-day week council saw spike in agency staff
30/01/2024 South Cambridgeshire DC’s controversial four-day week trial is under fresh scrutiny after data revealed a spike in agency work and opponents challenged costs. |
Argyll and Bute considers 10% council tax hike
25/01/2024 Argyll and Bute Council are considering a council tax rise of 10% in order to tackle ‘enormous budget challenges’. |
Clampdown threat to diversity programmes
24/01/2024 The Government is to clampdown on diversity programmes as part of a drive to ‘reduce wasteful expenditure’. |
Southampton latest to request financial support
19/01/2024 Southampton City Council has begun the ‘sensible’ process of seeking Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) as it struggles to balance its budgets. |
First North Yorkshire mayoral election to cost £2m
17/01/2024 The election of the first mayor of a new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority is set to cost £2.2m, a council report has revealed. |
Scottish councils face ‘difficult decisions’ on cuts
16/01/2024 ‘Intensifying pressures’ on Scottish local authorities mean they must make difficult decisions on service delivery to remain financially sustainable, a watchdog has said. |
BCP warns of S114 risk over schools funding
15/01/2024 A growing deficit on its dedicated schools grant (DSG) could force Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council to issue a section 114 notice this year. |
Leaderships posts left vacant to cut costs
11/01/2024 Senior leadership posts at Cheshire East Council are being temporarily left vacant as the authority faces ‘significant financial pressures’. |
Council warns of S114 risk over HS2 costs
15/12/2023 Cheshire East Council has warned that it may have to issue a section 114 notice after spending £11m preparing for HS2, as it continues to press for compensation. |
Swindon’s finances on a ‘cliff edge’
14/12/2023 Axing 80 jobs is one proposal among a raft of measures under consideration by Swindon Borough Council as it seeks to cover a £14m shortfall. |
Middlesbrough proposes job cuts as it warns of ‘tough choices’
14/12/2023 Middlesbrough Council has proposed axing 75 full-time equivalent posts and cutting social care costs as it scrambles to set a balanced budget for next year. |
Quarter of Scottish councils fear bankruptcy
13/12/2023 Nearly a quarter of Scottish councils fear they will be unable to balance their budget next year, new research shows. |
Nottingham proposes cutting 550 jobs
13/12/2023 Nottingham City Council has proposed cutting 554 full-time equivalent posts in an attempt to tackle its financial shortfall. |
Birmingham given a month to make £300m savings plan
07/12/2023 Commissioners have given Birmingham City Council until 7 January to set out a ‘credible plan’ for addressing a £300m budget gap over the next two years. |
One in five councils report bankruptcy fears
06/12/2023 A poll of council leaders and chief executives has revealed that one in five think it likely that their chief finance officer will need to issue a Section 114. |
Hull’s finances ‘reaching the end of the road’
17/11/2023 The leader of Hull City Council has warned the Government that it will not be able to set a balanced budget in 2025-26 without intervention. |
Derbyshire denies facing ‘bankruptcy situation’
17/11/2023 Derbyshire County Council said ‘serious challenges’ lie ahead despite its progress in tackling its financial shortfall. |
Brum commissioners warn council will need further help to agree lawful budget
09/11/2023 Commissioners at Birmingham City Council have warned it will struggle to agree a lawful budget next year without further help. |
Somerset declares ‘financial emergency’
09/11/2023 Somerset Council has declared it is facing a ‘financial emergency’ and agreed that ‘urgent actions’ are required to tackle a £100m shortfall. |
Council looks to address £100m ‘black hole’
01/11/2023 Somerset Council is considering measures, including reducing staffing and cutting services to statutory levels, to cover a £100m funding gap. |
Call for Government write off of Croydon debt
01/11/2023 The Government should write off Croydon LBC’s £1.3bn of General Fund debt, a senior opposition councillor has urged. |
DCN writes to Hunt over temporary accommodation pressures
01/11/2023 Following a summit attended by 158 councils, the District Councils’ Network (DCN) has warned chancellor Jeremy Hunt about ‘unprecedented’ numbers of people turning to councils in the face of homelessness. |
One in 10 county councils facing effective bankruptcy
01/11/2023 England’s county and unitary authorities are ‘running out of road’ to prevent insolvency, with one in 10 not sure they can balance their budget this year. |
Emergency summit held amid temporary accommodation warnings
31/10/2023 More than 150 councils this week attended an emergency summit as the cost of temporary accommodation to local authorities increases rapidly. |
S114 ‘almost inevitable’ for Leicester
30/10/2023 Leicester City Council is ‘rapidly running out of options’ to cut costs and faces financial crisis ahead of its 2025-26 budget, its mayor has warned Michael Gove. |
EXCLUSIVE: Nightmare before Christmas?
26/10/2023 The provisional local government finance settlement will be published just before Christmas, council chiefs have been told. |
Welsh councils face £750m shortfall
25/10/2023 Local government finances in Wales are on an ‘unsustainable path’, according to a report from Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre. |
DCN in cuts warning
24/10/2023 Cultural services, community support and parks and green spaces are all at risk of cuts without a boost to the local government finance settlement, respondents to a District Councils’ Network (DCN) survey have warned. |
Council to limit non-essential spending amid s114 threat
28/09/2023 Windsor & Maidenhead BC is to limit all non-essential spending as it raised the risk of a section 114. |
Woking entered s114 territory in 2018
13/09/2023 Woking BC may have faced a section 114 notice at least four years before it declared effective bankruptcy, senior councillors have been told. |
Brum braced for Government intervention
12/09/2023 Birmingham City Council is braced for a wide-ranging Government intervention to help rescue the authority’s bleak finances, and improve political and officer leadership. |
Long-term solution sought to drainage board pressure
12/06/2023 Councils are seeking a ‘long-term solution’ as internal drainage boards (IDB) warn increasing energy costs will pile further pressure on council budgets. |
EXCLUSIVE: Councils in dark over new funding stream
18/04/2023 More financial uncertainty is being piled onto councils over the distribution of a fresh funding stream, The MJ has been told. |
Croydon approves 15% tax hike
09/03/2023 Croydon LBC has approved a 15% council tax increase as part of a 2023-24 budget that was originally rejected. |
Council in £540m debt write off plea
17/02/2023 Croydon LBC has asked Government to write off £540m of its debt in 2023-24 to ‘restore financial sustainability’. |
DLUHC: No more section 114 notices expected
10/01/2023 Whitehall officials are not expecting councils to issue further section 114 notices in the coming weeks, crediting the sector’s ‘positive’ settlement. |
Brown to ask Government to bypass referendum limit
05/01/2023 The chief executive of troubled Slough Council is preparing to ask the Government for permission to increase council tax above the 5% legal limit. |
