10 ways councils are making budgets go further
Discover 10 ways councils are stretching budgets further, from digital transformation and energy efficiency to community partnerships and data-driven decision-making.
Woking to get £500m bailout as Surrey split in two
28/10/2025 Reorganisation frontrunner Surrey will have its 12 councils replaced by two unitaries, with £500m of Woking BC's debts written off, The MJ understands. |
‘Outdated and harmful’: Council bailiff use soars 30%
20/10/2025 The use of bailiffs by local authorities in England and Wales has surged by 30% in just two years, according to new analysis from Debt Justice. |
Budget deficit warning over two unitary plan
13/10/2025 One of two unitary authorities proposed for Warwickshire amid local government reorganisation ‘would exist with a budget deficit from day one', report warns. |
EXCLUSIVE: Surrey reorganisation decision delayed
08/10/2025 A final decision on the new unitary structures for Surrey has been delayed, council chiefs have been told. |
Reorganisation debt warning
16/09/2025 Ministers need to do more to ensure council debts are not a financial barrier to local government reorganisation, local authority leaders have warned. |
Essex claims three unitary reorganisation would best tackle debt crisis
10/09/2025 Essex CC has claimed its favoured three unitary model of reorganisation would best manage the county's ‘heavily indebted' local government system. |
Millions at risk of council tax debt, report warns
02/09/2025 One in four UK adults fear they will be unable to pay their council tax over the next six months, new research from StepChange Debt Charity reveals. |
Town halls forced to sell community assets as debts mount
26/08/2025 Local authorities across the UK are selling off public assets – such as schools and care homes – to try and reduce a collective debt of £122bn. |
Council debt costs over £4bn annually
19/08/2025 There has been a 60% increase in council debt over the last 10 years, figures have revealed. |
Woking’s ‘historic debt’ to be reduced by Government
07/08/2025 Financial support will be delivered to help Woking BC repay its debt, the Government has said. |
Ministerial envoys sent in to support indebted council
10/07/2025 Concerns about the levels of debt at Warrington Council have prompted the Government to send in four ministerial envoys. |
Council tax arrears hit £8.3bn
26/06/2025 The total amount of council tax arrears owed by households across Britain has nearly reached £8.3bn, an analysis of Government figures has revealed. |
Council’s net debt rises by £233m
23/06/2025 Wirral Council’s net debt has risen by £233m in six months due in part to spending on Public Finance Initiatives (PFI). |
Consultation on council tax debt collection launched
20/06/2025 The Government has launched a consultation on proposals aimed at overhauling council tax debt collection practices. |
Drastic rise in bailiff impersonation cases, warns CIVEA
05/06/2025 There has been a 300% increase in reports of ‘fake bailiffs’ seeking to ‘scare victims into paying fictitious debts’, says the Civil Enforcement Association. |
Thurrock Council seeks ‘justice’ following alleged fraud
04/06/2025 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched an investigation into Rockfire Investment Finance Plc following fraud allegations made by Thurrock Council. |
Union launches Fair Funding campaign to save council jobs
19/05/2025 Unite has launched a campaign calling for an overhaul of how local authorities are funded to prevent further bankruptcies and job and public service cuts. |
Debt hurdle remains for reorganisation plans
14/05/2025 Multi-billion pound debts remain a point of contention in reorganisation negotiations as the deadline passed for the first of the final plans to be submitted. |
Former Thurrock CFO issued with five-year ban
09/05/2025 In a historic first, the Financial Reporting Council has banned the former chief financial officer of Thurrock Council from working as a local government CFO. |
Deal suspends 'mass litigation' against councils
25/02/2025 A deal has been struck to suspend debt-ridden Thurrock Council's ‘mass litigation' against 23 other local authorities. |
Plea for Rayner to write off £5.7bn Surrey debt
13/02/2025 The Government should write off the £5.7bn of debt facing Surrey's districts to facilitate reorganisation, council leaders have urged. |
Croydon in fresh call for debt write off
12/02/2025 Croydon LBC is lobbying the Government to write off its debt despite suggestions a decision will not be made until the summer. |
Cash-strapped Croydon requests £136m boost
10/02/2025 Croydon Council has requested £136m exceptional financial support from the Government. |
Brighton to take on £51m debt from i360 tower
27/01/2025 Brighton and Hove City Council has agreed to take on £51m of debt from the i360 tower after the firm behind the attraction went into administration. |
Council leader calls for Woking BC debt ‘write off’
14/01/2025 The leader of Surrey County Council has urged the Government to ‘write off’ £1bn of Woking BC's debt to enable the creation of a unitary authority. |
Councils’ Best Value notices lifted
20/12/2024 Best Value notices issued to Runnymede and Eastleigh borough councils will not be renewed despite ongoing concern about their ‘significant’ debts. |
Brighton tower files for administration owing council £51m
28/11/2024 Brighton’s iconic seafront tower, Brighton i360, has filed for insolvency leaving its outstanding £51m debt to the city council unpaid. |
Woking's debt hits £2.1bn
21/11/2024 Woking BC's commissioners have revealed its ‘spiral of debt' has reached £2.1bn and further intervention is needed. |
Council apologises after council tax debt confusion
19/11/2024 Buckinghamshire Council has issued an apology after a man was threatened by bailiffs over unpaid council tax. |
Value of rental arrears jumps 70%
02/10/2024 The value of rental arrears owed to local authorities has increased by more than 70% in the last five years, new research has revealed. |
Martin Lewis: Councils collect unpaid tax like ‘worst loan sharks’
10/09/2024 Consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has criticised the ‘grotesque’ methods authorities use to recover council tax and urged the Government to change the law on debt collection. |
Warrington BC faces £29m overspend
03/09/2024 Warrington Borough Council could be facing a £29m overspend by the end of the financial year, the cabinet member for corporate finance has warned. |
Dorset councils owed £45m in council tax
27/08/2024 Dorset's two main councils are owed more than £45m in council tax arrears from the last three years, a new study has revealed. |
Number of fines referred to bailiffs up 67%
20/08/2024 The number of penalty charge notices (PCN) referred to enforcement agencies has jumped by two thirds this year, trade body says. |
Birmingham to lose £320m on athletes’ village sale
14/08/2024 Hundreds of homes designed to be part of an athletes’ village for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games will be sold by the council at a loss of about £320m. |
Councils agree on how to split Northamptonshire's final balance
13/08/2024 The two local authorities formed after the demise of Northamptonshire CC have agreed on how to split their predecessor's £40m balance sheet. |
Councillors advised to write off £1.25m of debts
06/08/2024 Officers have recommended that Peterborough City Council writes off £1.25m of ‘irrecoverable’ debts. |
Unpaid council tax surges to £6bn
06/08/2024 Council tax arrears have soared to £6bn a year, a sign that the collection process is ‘failing local authorities and taxpayers alike’, according to a report published today. |
NHS debt to council climbs by £11m in a year
02/07/2024 The NHS owes Cambridgeshire County Council £13m for adult social care services, a report 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. |
Moody's withdraws Warrington's credit rating
17/06/2024 Indebted Warrington BC has had its credit rating withdrawn by Moody’s due to the lack of ‘sufficient, current audited financial information’ on the authority. |
Councils ‘too slow’ at resolving £40m dispute
12/06/2024 Two Northamptonshire councils have been 'too slow' to resolve a dispute over £40m of debt, an auditor has warned. |
Windsor and Maidenhead council issues bankruptcy warning
23/05/2024 The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has warned it could be facing effective bankruptcy if financial support is not agreed soon. |
Unpaid carers forced to repay DWP over £250m
20/05/2024 The Government requires unpaid carers to pay back more than £250m after thousands were unknowingly overpaid their allowance. |
Fresh Best Value Notice for South Cambs over four-day week
08/05/2024 The Government has issued a new Best Value Notice to South Cambridgeshire DC due to ‘ongoing concerns’ about the authority’s four-day working week. |
Council debt up by £52bn since 2010
02/05/2024 Local government debt has increased by 78% since 2010 as councils attempted to make up for cuts to Government funding, new research has revealed. |
Blow to council hopes for cash boost
23/04/2024 The prospect of extra cash for councils has faded further with the latest public finance figures showing the UK borrowed more than expected last month. |
Councils refer 600,000 people to bailiffs
17/04/2024 Local authorities referred almost 600,000 people to bailiffs last year due to failure to pay council tax, according to a freedom of information request. |
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. |
Thurrock boosted by £500m after sale
26/02/2024 Thurrock Council has received £510m in payments following the sale of Toucan Energy Holdings – the firm that triggered a section 114 notice when it collapsed. |
Isle of Wight debt accounts for 42% of annual budget
30/01/2024 Isle of Wight Council has insisted it borrows to invest in essential projects after revealing its debt amounts to 42% of the authority’s annual budget. |
Council referrals to bailiffs up 20%
24/01/2024 Referrals to bailiffs in England and Wales to recover council debts have risen by nearly 20%, a BBC investigation has found. |
Two councils issued Best Value notices
20/12/2023 Eastleigh and Runnymede borough councils have been issued Best Value notices over concerns about their debts. |
Councillors reject £1.5m debt write-off
04/12/2023 Councillors in Bolton have voted against plans to write off £1.5m worth of debt owed by the local authority's parking operator. |
Poorer households should not be chased for council tax debt, MPs say
01/12/2023 The Government should ensure local authorities are not ‘aggressively’ chasing council tax debt from those who can least afford it, MPs have said. |
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. |
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. |
Croydon improvement panel details exit strategy
17/10/2023 Croydon LBC’s Government-appointed improvement panel has outlined a timetable for withdrawing from the authority amid ‘strong progress’ in fixing its finances. |
Liverpool to write off £25m council tax debt
11/10/2023 Millions of pounds worth of unpaid council tax is set to be written off by Liverpool City Council as ‘irrecoverable’. |
Councils face record £3.5bn shortfall
28/09/2023 Research has uncovered a £3.5bn shortfall facing councils over the next financial year, revealing ‘true scale of the dire state of local government funding’. |
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. |
Millions of households struggle with rent payments
26/09/2023 Seven million households across the UK are struggling to keep up with their rent or mortgage payments, according to research published today by Which? |
Spelthorne confident of financial strength
15/09/2023 Spelthorne BC has struck a defiant note over its level of debt on the back of another Surrey council warning of potential bankruptcy. |
EXCLUSIVE: Government rejects sector's Oflog concerns
04/09/2023 The Government has rejected council concerns about key Oflog metrics that have been labelled ‘misleading and meaningless’. |
Time to ban the use of bailiffs
21/08/2023 Councils have the power to end the use of bailiffs for good. It’s time for them to show leadership, says Joe Cox, senior policy officer, Debt Justice. |
Woking staff face redundancy
10/08/2023 All Woking BC staff will go through redundancy consultations by the end of the year as the struggling local authority seeks to tackle its financial problems. |
Rent arrears surge
02/08/2023 Four in five council landlords have reported growing rent arrears over the past year, according to the findings of a new survey. |
Disadvantaged women in North East dying early
10/07/2023 Disadvantaged women in the North East are dying prematurely as public services are failing to meet their needs, according to a new report. |
Nearly 13 million adults facing ‘debt crisis’
03/07/2023 The number of households struggling under a heavy debt burden has increased by two thirds since 2017, a debt charity has warned. |
Warrington prepares for £3m increase in debt interest payments
15/06/2023 Debt-ridden Warrington BC has admitted it will be hit by a £3m bill to refinance a £110m Government loan. |
Preventing future Section 114 notices
13/06/2023 Joanne Pitt, Local Government Policy manager at CIPFA, reflects on Woking BC’s financial troubles and looks at the lessons for other councils. |
Cash-strapped Thurrock to hike charges
08/06/2023 Beleaguered Thurrock Council is set to increase charges for its services to help deal with its cash crisis. |
BREAKING: Woking's 'astonishing' financial crisis risks hitting Government borrowing
02/06/2023 Calamity-struck Woking BC may need to write off up to £1bn after a series of disastrous investments – a debt so big it would impact on Government borrowing. |
Croydon housing staff ballot for strike over job cuts
31/05/2023 Housing staff at cash-strapped Croydon Council are balloting for strike action today over concerns that a restructure could lead to 26 redundancies. |
Estimated 700,000 households miss housing payments
09/05/2023 An estimated 700,000 households missed a housing payment in the last month, according to consumer watchdog. |
Bailiffs breaking rules on ‘massive scale’, says charity
22/03/2023 Bailiffs are breaking the rules on a ‘massive scale’ and driving people deeper into poverty, charity warns. |
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. |
Liverpool council reports over £220m of outstanding debts
22/02/2023 Liverpool City Council has over £220m of outstanding debts that it does not expect to recover, a report by the interim chief finance officer has said. |
Woking Borough Council warns of possible S114
22/02/2023 Woking Borough Council has warned that it is ‘in the territory’ of effective bankruptcy as it struggles with over £2bn of debt. |
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’. |
Eurovision Song Contest host owes council over £7m
08/02/2023 ACC Liverpool Group, the company that runs the host venue for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, owes the city council £7.1m. |
Eastleigh finance review to start
07/02/2023 The Government has commissioned a review of Eastleigh BC’s finances to start this week after concerns over its debt levels. |
New regulatory body for bailiffs launched
30/11/2022 A new regulatory body for bailiffs was launched today as new figures reveal over a third of families fear the cost-of-living crisis will force them into debt. |
Croydon issues S114 notice
22/11/2022 Croydon Council has put a halt to all non-statutory spending as it tries to find £130m of savings in the next financial year. |
How Middlesbrough Council increased engagement rates by 59% of residents in Council Tax arrears
03/11/2022 Middlesbrough Council embarked on a six-month pilot with Voicescape to improve customer engagement over outstanding payments. |
MPs call for pause in benefit deductions to help struggling families
27/07/2022 MPs have urged the DWP to pause deductions from benefits to help families who are struggling to get by due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. |
Two million households miss payments
06/07/2022 An estimated two million or more households have missed a bill payment every month this year, consumer watchdog finds. |
Talks held over council's debt concern
05/07/2022 Woking BC has held ‘positive and constructive’ talks with the Government amid ministerial concerns about the sustainability of the authority’s debts. |
Charity calls for suspension of UC deductions
30/06/2022 Suspending deductions from UC for Government debt would help over a million low income households struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, researchers say. |
People with mental health issues three times more likely to fall into council tax arrears, charity warns
11/11/2021 Councils have been urged to provide people with mental health problems with more support to prevent them from falling into council tax debt. |
Nearly 430,000 people missed a council tax payment last year
08/10/2021 Hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland have missed a council tax payment in the last year after running out of money before pay day, a new analysis finds. |
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. |
Breaking the technical debt cycle in local government
27/08/2021 Iouri Prokhorov argues that for effective digital transformation to take root and to tackle technical debt, local government organisations need to learn from previous mistakes and habits. |
Universal Credit cuts to force two million people into debt
26/08/2021 Government plans to cut Universal Credit this October could push 2.3 million people into the red, Citizens Advice warns. |
New toolkit to help councils support vulnerable people in debt
25/08/2021 Vulnerable people who owe councils money will receive better support from frontline workers following the launch of a new toolkit. |
How will the ECA affect debt collection protocol?
13/08/2021 Corclaim’s head of debt & asset recovery, Jayne Gardner, discusses the Enforcement Conduct Authority, and what this means for debt collection protocol. |
It’s time to stop counting on the courts to collect council tax arrears
04/08/2021 John Doyle calls on councils to rethink ineffective processes used to handle arrears and focus on communication, affordability, and vulnerability. |
Families facing 'tidal wave' of debt warns think tank
26/07/2021 A new partnership between bailiff companies and charities has been launched to help families facing a 'tidal wave' of debt due to the pandemic. |
Small businesses took on five times more debt during pandemic
16/07/2021 Independent businesses offer placemakers an opportunity to create a unique experience but need the support of central and local government, report says. |
Council tax debt rises to £4.4bn
24/06/2021 Council tax debt increased by £841m last year due to the pandemic reducing or delaying recovery action, official figures have shown. |
