3/13/2026

Recruitment challenges are hindering continued improvement at Sandwell Council, a Local Government Association corporate peer challenge review has warned.

12/2/2025

Improvement at Birmingham City Council is ‘fragile, has been slower than anticipated and several areas of significant risk remain’, according to the latest report from commissioners called in by the Government to run the local authority.

10/30/2025

Councils have been forced to shell out £9.5m on Government intervention over the last four years, research by The MJ has found.

7/4/2025

Education Secretary Bridget Philipson is set to announce the Government’s aims to help close the ‘disadvantage gap’ in schools.

6/30/2025

Former Tory minister Dame Amanda Milling is expected to be appointed to a new board tasked with helping ‘reset' troubled Tees Valley combined authority.

6/13/2025

Minister Jim McMahon has suggested escalating Croydon LBC’s statutory intervention to a commissioner-led model to ensure it can ‘achieve sustained change at the pace needed’.

4/8/2025

Liverpool City Council has further to go on its improvement journey but has ‘made significant and substantial’ progress, according to an improvement board.

3/10/2025

Capacity issues are hindering the financial recovery of Woking BC, commissioners have warned.

2/4/2025

Not all 39 councillors at a Nottinghamshire council are fully getting to grips with the financial challenges for the local authority, peer review has warned.

11/6/2024

English county councils appear to be putting off inviting peer challenges from the Local Government Association (LGA) ahead of next year's elections.

6/20/2024

Labour is reportedly planning to buy thousands of beds in care homes in an effort to reduce the problem of delayed discharges in hospitals.

5/20/2024

An improvement and assurance framework will be reviewed by Local Government Association (LGA) members ahead of publication as a new resource for the sector.

5/15/2024

Wirral Council has been issued with an improvement notice due to ‘poor progress’ across the special educational needs and disability (SEND) sector.

4/15/2024

East Devon DC is hoping to announce its new chief executive early next month after peers said senior level capacity was currently ‘limited’.

3/27/2024

Scotland’s Accounts Commission is ‘extremely concerned’ by slow transformation at Moray Council, which faces a £31m deficit despite years of warnings.

3/20/2024

Tensions between Teignbridge DC’s executive and senior leadership team are ‘inhibiting progress and damaging the council’s reputation,’ review warns.

3/14/2024

South Cambridgeshire DC’s decision to continue with its four-day week is ‘disappointing and arrogant,’ local government minister Simon Hoare has said.

3/7/2024

Local government minister Simon Hoare has today confirmed that Whitehall’s two-year intervention at Sandwell Council will end.

3/4/2024

Newham LBC’s chief executive has vowed to tackle the ‘culture of mistrust’ among politicians and officers laid bare by a critical peer review.

3/1/2024

The Government has issued a Best Value Notice to City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council over concerns about its financial resilience and children’s services.

3/1/2024

The Local Government Association (LGA) has launched its ‘strengthened’ corporate peer challenge (CPC) to help neutralise the threat from Oflog.

2/22/2024

The situation in Birmingham City Council is worse than commissioners expected, a report to the secretary of state has claimed.

2/14/2024

The Local Government Association (LGA) is to take a more proactive role as it seeks to do more to prevent Whitehall intervention in councils, The MJ understands.

2/8/2024

Auditors have lifted the three statutory recommendations in place at Sandwell MBC.

12/11/2023

Dudley MBC has set up an improvement board following stark warnings over its finances and governance.

11/28/2023

The LGA has called on those working in or with local government to provide feedback on how the improvement and assurance framework can be improved.

11/20/2023

Oldham MBC and Oxfordshire CC have received improvement notices for their services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

11/9/2023

Commissioners at Birmingham City Council have warned it will struggle to agree a lawful budget next year without further help.

10/17/2023

The number of government-funded projects to upgrade cold and draughty homes in north east England has significantly reduced, according to climate change charity Ashden.

10/17/2023

Croydon LBC’s Government-appointed improvement panel has outlined a timetable for withdrawing from the authority amid ‘strong progress’ in fixing its finances.

10/3/2023

Southampton City Council has formed its own voluntary improvement board as it battles budgetary pressures.

9/22/2023

Liverpool City Council has set out a four-year plan to significantly improve the quality of services in the face of ‘complex’ issues.

9/12/2023

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.

9/5/2023

The UK’s biggest local authority, Birmingham City Council, has issued a section 114 notice in the face of crippling financial problems.

8/14/2023

A firm at the centre of a residential care abuse scandal has reported operating losses of £5.8m for the year to June 2022.

8/4/2023

Peterborough City Council has been issued with an improvement notice following an Ofsted report that raised concerns about the council's children’s services.

7/31/2023

Elements of the LGA are privately moving towards accepting that corporate peer challenges should be put on a statutory footing, The MJ understands.

7/31/2023

Senior Hastings BC councillors will be urged next week to ‘bring in and embed more stringent financial controls and accountability to urgently reduce spending’.

7/27/2023

Liverpool City Council has been praised for the improvements it has made in the way it handles complaints.

7/26/2023

Birmingham City Council’s mammoth equal pay bill could rise further if it fails to meet a tight deadline to fix the issue.

7/21/2023

The strategic partnership for children’s services between Hampshire CC and Isle of Wight Council could end after a decade of work between the two.

6/12/2023

Senior managers at Eastbourne BC must address the council’s low levels of reserves given current cost pressures within sector, an LGA-led review has warned.

5/22/2023

The national Labour Party has selected Cllr John Cotton as the new leader of Birmingham City Council Labour group after its intervention last week.

4/25/2023

A Government-imposed governance review of Birmingham City Council has been expanded after massive failures in its accounts IT system emerged.

4/24/2023

Ministers must avoid forcing high-quality supported housing providers from the market in their rush to tackle rogue landlords, peers have warned.

4/6/2023

An improvement notice has been issued to Kent CC after it failed to turn around its special educational needs and disability (SEND) services.

3/16/2023

The Government has said there are question marks over the ‘viability’ of Slough Council as a unitary as it announced plans for it and Thurrock and Croydon.

3/9/2023

Troubled Liverpool City Council is making progress, its commissioners have ruled, but there are still risks.

3/7/2023

The Local Government Association (LGA) today revealed plans to beef up its oversight of councils in an effort to stave off Government interference.

3/2/2023

New plan to support children with special educational needs and disabilities fails to address ‘fundamental cost and demand issues’, council chiefs say.

2/21/2023

Stockport MBC statutory officers should meet more regularly, a peer review team has advised the council.

2/7/2023

A Government-appointed commissioner has warned Sefton Council’s children’s services are still in ‘severe difficulties’ and could be removed from local control.

2/2/2023

Nottingham City Council has been too slow in turning around its finances, according to the team charged with overseeing its recovery.

1/24/2023

Michael Gove has effectively ordered a full intervention of Thurrock Council amid fresh concerns over the authority’s governance, scrutiny and operating model.

12/20/2022

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.

10/5/2022

Thurrock BC will reduce its ‘over-reliance’ on borrowing from other councils by taking out £836m of loans from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).

9/29/2022

Hertsmere BC’s online services and phone services have been hit by a ‘major system failure’.

9/2/2022

Ministers have held back from appointing commissioners at Nottingham City Council, instead deciding to strengthen the powers of its improvement and assurance board.

7/13/2022

Telford & Wrekin Council has apologised ‘wholeheartedly’ after an inquiry concluded more than 1,000 children were sexually exploited over at least 30 years.

6/23/2022

Commissioners are to oversee strategic decisions at Nottingham City Council amid fears of ‘further serious issues’ on the scale that led to a section 114.

6/8/2022

Conservative-run Northumberland Council may be hit by a second section 114, a senior officer has admitted.

5/4/2022

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has agreed to let commissioners at Liverpool City Council delay their latest report amid their warnings that plans to turn the council around are in the balance.

4/27/2022

Nottingham City Council is expected to bring its housing back under direct control after two independent probes found ‘underlying issues around governance and finance’.

3/8/2022

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.

1/25/2022

Bradford Council’s children’s services will be transferred to a not-for-profit trust following the tragic death of Star Hobson.

1/18/2022

Oxfordshire County Council and Cherwell District Council have announced they are looking to end their formal partnership.

12/14/2021

A second court case in a month has revealed serious shortcomings in how local agencies responded to allegations of abuse shortly before a child’s murder.

12/1/2021

The Government has sent commissioners in to struggling Slough BC in a bid to turn round its failing finances.

10/26/2021

Mismanagement and a dysfunctional culture contributed to Slough Council’s financial meltdown, two Government-ordered reviews have concluded.

9/28/2021

Funding problems rather than individual errors explain a ‘relentless rise’ in the proportion of social care complaints upheld by the local government ombudsman, the watchdog has said.

6/10/2021

Surrey CC’s chief executive Joanna Killian will be part of the team of independent commissioners who will oversee improvements at Liverpool City Council, local government secretary Robert Jenrick has announced today.

5/12/2021

Liverpool City Council has drafted an improvement plan and letter in response to the Caller report, which called for an intervention in the city.

3/24/2021

Commissioners will be sent in to Liverpool City Council after an independent inquiry found serious mismanagement and a dysfunctional culture, communities secretary Robert Jenrick has told Parliament.

12/18/2020

An expert panel to help Nottingham City Council improve its ‘appalling financial and management issues’ has been set up by the Government.

7/28/2020

Increasing systemic problems identified in residents’ complaints has led to the Local Government Ombudsman making more wider service improvement recommendations to councils than ever before.

7/9/2020

Peer support for councils is going virtual to help them deal with recovery and renewal as they emerge from the coronavirus lockdown.

3/4/2020

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.

12/4/2019

Council leaders in Wales have welcomed improvements to all areas of the country’s education system.

11/8/2019

Plans to reorganise cash-strapped Northamptonshire County Council have stalled amid the general election.

8/20/2019

Councils have saved more than £100m in the past year by using the Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement (SLI) offer.

6/5/2019

Shadow local government secretary Andrew Gwynne has called for Northamptonshire CC leader, Matt Golby, to quit after ‘repeated failures’ in the council’s children’s services.

5/24/2019

Gloucestershire CC is making ‘slow progress’ in improving its services for its children and young people two years after it was judged inadequate, Ofsted has found.

5/14/2019

Council leaders have welcomed the year-long delay to plans to create two new unitaries in Northamptonshire.

5/9/2019

Brokenshire moves to impose fresh conditions on ‘top slice’ cash

4/2/2019

Birmingham City Council’s intervention team has issued a final, damning report on the crisis-hit council and walked away – despite admitting its job is not complete.

3/1/2019

Sandwell MBC has made ‘significant progress’ following an independent review last year.

1/25/2019

Smith Square has acknowledged the financial challenges it faces as it freezes subscriptions while grappling with declining Government grants and a pension scheme deficit.

9/19/2018

The sector’s ability to respond to crises such as a care provider failure could be hit after Whitehall demanded cuts to a key improvement programme, senior councillors have been warned.

9/6/2018

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.

7/10/2018

James Brokenshire is considering new models of devolution as he seeks to extend further powers to local areas, the communities secretary has insisted.

5/15/2018

The tight timeframe for reorganising local government across Northamptonshire claimed its first victim this week despite ministers’ decision to extend the consultation period.

5/9/2018

New local government secretary James Brokenshire has today announced the two commissioners appointed to help rescue troubled Northamptonshire CC.

5/2/2018

Northamptonshire CC will establish an improvement board that will work closely with government commissioners to improve the county’s finances and governance ahead of reorganisation.

1/26/2018

Essex County Council has been appointed Barnet’s improvement partner after the latter’s children’s services were rated ‘inadequate’ by inspectors.

1/9/2018

Local government secretary Sajid Javid has ordered a best value inspection of Conservative-led Northamptonshire CC amid continuing concerns over its financial management and corporate governance.