LGA

• Council spending on asylum-seeking children doubles in four years

  Local authority leaders have called on the Government to provide ‘vital’ funding to help them support unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

  

• Local welfare cuts leave millions facing ‘financial exclusion’

  Local authority leaders have warned that millions of low-income households are ‘facing debt and financial exclusion’ due to Whitehall cuts.

  

• Loss of social homes has added billions to housing benefits bill, councils warn

  The housing benefit bill could have been reduced by billions if 100,000 social homes had been built over the past two decades, council leaders have said today.

  

• Government in 'denial' over councils' finances, warn MPs

  Marsham Street has ‘an unacceptable lack of ambition’ for local government –  with no aspiration for improving finances beyond merely ‘coping’, according to a scathing Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report.

  

• Popular council services could be swallowed by £8bn funding black hole

  Many popular council services could disappear by 2025 due to a £8bn funding black hole, council leaders have warned today.

  

• Whitehall commits to reaching zero HIV transmissions by 2030

  Council chiefs have welcomed Whitehall’s announcement that it is committed to reaching zero HIV transmissions by 2030, but they urged the Government to reverse public health cuts ‘as a matter of urgency’.

  

• Nine out of ten councils blow the budget on children's care

  Nearly ninety percent of councils overspent on children’s social care last year, according to figures released by the Local Government Association.

  

• Council call for action over number of operations to remove rotten teeth in children

  Council leaders have called for immediate action to tackle sugar consumption after new figures showed more than 45,000 teenagers and children had teeth extracted in hospital last year.

  

• Blue Badge theft up by 45% in past year

  Councils have warned that Blue Badge theft in England has increased by 45% in the past 12 months.

  

• Permitted development rules are exacerbating affordable housing crisis, councils warn

  Government rules to allow developers to convert offices into housing without planning permission has led to communities missing out on 10,000 affordable homes in the past three years, council leaders have warned