Ministers have held back from appointing commissioners at Nottingham City Council, instead deciding to strengthen the powers of its improvement and assurance board.
They have used powers under the Local Government Act to strengthen the role of the board to drive through improvements at the council after Nottingham discovered it had unlawfully allocated Housing Revenue Account funds to its General Fund.
The measures will give the board statutory powers to compel the council to act on its advice.
Nottingham pleaded with ministers for commissioners not to be sent in after the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said in June it was minded to intervene.
Council chief executive Mel Barrett said he understood the pace of improvement needed to increase.
Leader David Mellen added: ‘We know there is a lot more work to do but we have demonstrated our determination to address the issues which led to the non-statutory review.’
This article originally appeared in The MJ (£).
