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. |
Section 114 notice issued for Thurrock
20/12/2022 Thurrock Council’s interim director of finance, Jonathan Wilson, has issued a section 114 notice as the authority faces a £470m in-year funding gap. |
Districts push for council tax flexibility
12/12/2022 Districts are pushing the Government to allow them to increase council tax by more than 3% or £5 without a referendum. |
£470m in-year budget gap at Thurrock revealed
29/11/2022 Troubled Thurrock BC has revealed it has no way to fill its £470m in-year budget gap without a Government bailout. |
Council offers all staff volutary redundancy
16/09/2022 Northumberland Council has offered all of its staff the option of voluntary redundancy as it attempts to rein in a predicted £12m budget overspend. |
Council chiefs warn of 'disastrous' financial crisis
27/06/2022 More councils could be tipped into financial crisis while others face emergency cuts due to soaring inflation and living wage increases, the LGA warned today. |
Counties in inflation funding call
14/06/2022 County councils have called for extra Government funding to cope with huge increases caused by inflation. |
Nottingham expected to bring housing back under direct control after probes
27/04/2022 Nottingham City Council is expected to bring its housing back under direct control after two independent probes found ‘underlying issues around governance and finance’. |
Slough given conditions for £300m bailout
08/03/2022 Slough Council will only be considered for a £307m Government bailout to cover its deficits if it proves it can turn itself around financially, the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has warned. |
Cornwall plans to cut 400 jobs
03/12/2021 The cuts are part of plans to save £55m in order to balance the council’s budget in 2022-23. |
LGA warning over soaring care costs
23/11/2021 Soaring adult and children’s care costs mean councils could ‘soon fail to support everyone they need to,’ town halls have warned. |
Powys' savings off target
01/11/2021 Powys CC’s savings plans are 22% off target more than halfway through the financial year, senior councillors have been warned. |
Slough approves asset fire sale
21/09/2021 Crisis-hit Slough Council has approved plans to flog around £600m worth of assets as it battles to get its finances under control. |
£3bn gap looms for councils
24/08/2021 Councils in England, Wales and Scotland are grappling with huge budget deficits totalling more than £3bn for the next financial year, according to research published by trade union Unison today. |
Councils left seriously underfunded, NAO finds
08/03/2021 Coronavirus has left local authorities seriously underfunded and facing budget cuts unless the Government can create a long-term financial plan for the sector, a study from the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. |
Employers branded a 'disgrace' over council pay delay
26/02/2021 Council employers have been branded a ‘disgrace’ after they said they would not respond to a union pay claim until after the May 6 elections. |
Scottish Budget 'falls short'
29/01/2021 The Scottish Government’s £11.6bn budget ‘falls short of the fair funding local government requires,’ councils have said. |
More councils will be forced to issue Section 114 notices, MPs warn
22/01/2021 More councils will ‘soon be unable to balance their books and be forced to issue Section 114 notices,’ the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned. |
Croydon would have issued s114 'in normal circumstances'
17/09/2020 Croydon LBC’s £49m total net forecast general fund overspend means it would have had to have issued a Section 114 notice in ‘normal circumstances,’ senior councillors have heard. |
£260m funding boost for Welsh councils
14/08/2020 Welsh ministers have announced a £260m funding boost for councils, bringing the total amount of government COVID-19 support to almost half a billion pounds. |
IfG: Extend outsourcing reforms to councils
04/03/2020 Government reforms of outsourcing to avoid another Carillion collapse must be extended to local government where commercial skills lag behind Whitehall, a report from the Institute for Government (IfG) think-tank has said. |
Seven out of 10 councils overspend on homelessness
28/01/2020 Seven out of 10 English councils overspent their homelessness budgets in 2018/19 by a combined total of nearly £115m, Local Government Association (LGA) analysis has found. |
Reorganisation in Somerset would 'cut waste and save money'
08/01/2020 A single, unitary authority for Somerset would deliver a predicted saving of £35-£47m, according to new research. |
Whitehall silence as Gwynne calls for provisional settlement
17/12/2019 Shadow local government secretary Andrew Gwynne has called on ministers to publish the provisional finance settlement immediately amid silence on its timing from Whitehall. |
Only 5% of council leaders optimistic about Brexit
29/10/2019 Councils are increasingly downbeat about the impact of Brexit, with nearly three quarters (71%) of chiefs expecting it to have a ‘negative’ or ‘very negative’ impact on their local economy. |
Universal Credit draining council resources
15/07/2019 Universal Credit (UC) is draining resources from councils, a new survey has found. |
Hopes for legislative backing behind new code
24/04/2019 An overhaul of financial management in councils could be enshrined in law, according to a consultation that stakeholders must respond to within days to influence. |
Council buys office to generate income
15/04/2019 South Cambridgeshire DC has made a £13m investment in a high-quality office building to generate an initial net return of around 5.6%. |
Exclusive: Government must 'step up' on adult social care
28/02/2019 The council ranked the best at delivering most for the money it spends on adult social care has called on the Government to ‘step up’. |
Call for tourism tax review
05/02/2019 An inquiry into cultural investment in cities has called for a UK-wide review of the benefits of a tourism tax. |
LGA faces financial headache
25/01/2019 Smith Square has acknowledged the financial challenges it faces as it freezes subscriptions while grappling with declining Government grants and a pension scheme deficit. |
Watchdog highlights councils' weak financial plans
10/01/2019 The number of public bodies in England with weak financial plans is ‘unacceptably high,’ the National Audit Office (NAO) has found. |
Welsh Government gives £24m boost to councils
20/12/2018 Welsh councils will be handed an extra £23.6m in 2019/20 on the condition that they commit to regional working. |
Council hits back at 'illegitimate' loan claim
31/10/2018 Newham LBC has denied claims that decisions to enter into controversial high-interest loans were illegitimate. |
Finance settlement has 'gravest implications'
09/10/2018 Councils have dismissed today’s Welsh Government’s finance settlement as a ‘bread and butter budget’ in which town halls ‘get the crumbs again’. |
Welfare support has 'collapsed' for many in England
19/09/2018 One in six top-tier councils are not providing vital welfare services devolved to them just as the sector’s budget cuts hit hard. |
Cash-strapped county faces £94m funding gap
18/09/2018 Surrey CC faces a funding gap of £94m by March 2021 unless it takes drastic action to change its finances, a report by accountancy experts has warned. |
LEPs told to improve ahead of EU funding changes
06/09/2018 Fresh concerns have emerged about local enterprise partnerships (LEP) as the Government considers whether to use them to funnel UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) cash. |
Budget gap doubles at Lewisham
17/07/2018 Lewisham LBC’s budget gap has more than doubled following an ‘unprecedented’ overspend. |
Somerset warns of possible Section 114
13/07/2018 Somerset CC has admitted it may have to impose ‘severe spending restrictions’ and an ‘emergency budget’ by issuing a Section 114 notice. |
Funding call to end 'postcode lottery' for children's services
11/07/2018 MPs today called for more funds to help end a so-called postcode lottery for children’s services. |
Rise in children's services spending
28/06/2018 The amount expected to be spent on children’s social care in 2018/19 is up 6.8% or £542m compared to the figure in 2017/18 budgets, latest figures have shown. |
Councils plan largest council tax rise in 13 years
28/03/2018 Council Tax levels will increase by an average of 5.1% across England in 2018/19, the largest rise for 13 years, ministers have confirmed. |
EXCLUSIVE: Funding red flags raised
06/02/2018 One in 10 council bosses fear their local authority will not have enough funding to fulfil their statutory duties in 2018/19, an exclusive survey has found today. |
County council imposes an emergency spending ban
03/02/2018 Northamptonshire CC’s director of finance has issued a section 114 order, calling a halt to spending at the cash-strapped authority. |
Labour accuses Government of 'holding back' local government
29/01/2018 Labour MPs have urged ministers to provide ‘strategic vision’ for local government. |
Scottish government under pressure over council pay
22/01/2018 Scotland’s Government is under pressure to reverse planned council budget cuts after MSPs warned ministers created an ‘expectation’ town hall staff would receive pay hikes. |
EXCLUSIVE: Finance settlement 'shambles' after provisional data wrong
18/01/2018 The local government finance settlement has descended into a shambles after it emerged allocations in the provisional document were wrong, The MJ can exclusively reveal. |
Council tax increase limit raised by Javid
19/12/2017 Councils will be allowed to increase their core council tax by up to 3% in 2018/19 without a referendum, potentially raising an additional £250m. |
Budget 2017: London to retain all local business rate growth
22/11/2017 London local government will be able to keep all its business rates growth as part of a 100% retention pilot. |
Participatory budgeting given go ahead in Scotland
30/10/2017 Residents in Scotland will be given a say in how £100m of council funds are to be used after a ‘landmark’ agreement was reached between the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.