Councils click into the future of planning
In town halls across the country, planning officers are racing to update their Local Plans — but this time, the process looks very different.
Council employee pay offer announced
23/04/2025 Council employees have been offered a 3.2% pay increase from 1 April 2025. |
Making payment processes smarter
22/04/2025 It can be challenging to find the right software to streamline payment processes. Lewis McKenna-Crisp argues SmarterPay has the ideal solution for councils. |
Union announces strike ballot over pay
16/04/2025 Scottish council workers are to be balloted over strike action in response to what a union has described as a ‘pitiful' pay offer. |
Striking Brum bin workers reject pay offer
14/04/2025 Refuse collection workers in Birmingham have rejected the city council’s latest pay offer in long-running dispute. |
Council chiefs defend six figure salaries
01/04/2025 Local authority leaders have defended local government salaries exceeding six figures, arguing it is important to attract the ‘right people’. |
Brum council declares ‘major incident’ amid bin strikes
01/04/2025 Birmingham City Council has declared a major incident to address the impact of the bin strikes in a move branded by Unite as ‘disgraceful strike breaking’. |
Aberdeen council accused of ‘fire and rehire’ threat
28/03/2025 Unite has accused Aberdeen City Council of threatening workers with ‘fire and rehire’ proposals as part of an industrial dispute, a claim the council denies. |
Brum council threatens redundancies to end bin strike
28/03/2025 Birmingham City Council will begin a consultation on compulsory redundancies in an effort to end the bin strike, a move Unite describes as ‘bully boy tactics’. |
UNISON: Reorganisation must not be ‘cover for job cuts’
20/03/2025 The abolition of district councils as part of local government reorganisation puts thousands of frontline jobs at risk, says UNISON. |
Leaders call for tough pay negotiating stance
05/03/2025 Council leaders have warned a tough stance is needed during pay negotiations as local government struggles to meet union demands. |
Birmingham strikes escalate
04/02/2025 Strikes by more than 350 Birmingham bin workers will ‘intensify’ over the next two months, trade union Unite has announced. |
Unions call for £3,000 pay rise
31/01/2025 Council and school employees in England should receive a wage rise of £3,000, according to trade unions representing public sector workers. |
Unions lodge pay claims in Scotland
24/01/2025 Unions have put in their pay claims on behalf of local government employees in Scotland. |
Union warns of risk of ‘two-tier workforce’
20/01/2025 Council trading companies have created a two-tier workforce as their employees are paid less and receive inferior pensions than town hall staff, UNISON says. |
South Cambs to consult on four-day week ‘at long last’
20/01/2025 South Cambridgeshire District Council will launch a consultation this month to ask residents about their experiences of its four-day week trial. |
Unions warn council over potential strikes
14/01/2025 Trade unions have warned Belfast City Council that leisure centre staff could strike if a pay dispute with an outsourced management company is not resolved. |
Call to monitor second jobs of four-day week staff
09/01/2025 Senior councillors in South Cambridgeshire will discuss whether the council should monitor staff working second jobs during its four-day week trial. |
Schools face ‘death by a thousand cuts’, union says
08/01/2025 Headteachers have warned that schools and colleges will be forced to make cuts if costs continue to outstrip the growth in school funding. |
350 Birmingham workers to strike
20/12/2024 Refuse workers at cash-strapped Birmingham City Council are set to strike in January in a dispute over pay. |
Council staff reject ‘insulting’ pay offer
13/12/2024 Outsourced Peterborough City Council employees are considering industrial action after rejecting a pay award. |
Council U-turn on clawing back chief's pay-out
12/12/2024 Croydon London Borough Council has given up trying to recover cash from the settlement payment made to former chief executive Jo Negrini just before its financial collapse. |
UNISON accepts revised pay offer
28/11/2024 Trade union UNISON has accepted the revised pay offer from local government employers in Scotland. |
Social care and the alarming impact of the NIC rise
12/11/2024 The Budget leaves the social care sector alarmed about the rise in national insurance contributions, says Rachael Dodgson, chief executive of Dimensions. |
Four-day week council holds back from permanent adoption
08/11/2024 South Cambridgeshire DC is holding back from permanently adopting a four-day working week despite winning the backing of deputy prime minster Angela Rayner. |
COSLA: Council leaders offer to ‘supplement’ pay offer
08/11/2024 Local authority leaders in Scotland have offered to ‘supplement and enhance’ the latest pay offer to trade unions to prevent further strikes. |
Mayor urges employers to embrace living wage
06/11/2024 North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has urged employers to embrace the real living wage as part of the region’s fight against child poverty and low pay. |
Budget: Minimum wage and National Insurance rises to hit councils
30/10/2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed rises to the minimum wage and employers' National Insurance contributions, piling further pressure on council budgets. |
Sector pay deals agreed
23/10/2024 Unions have struck a deal with employers on pay increases for chief executives and the wider workforce for 2024-25. |
Council attempts to recover payments to late chief executive
15/10/2024 A council is to launch legal action over payments to a former chief executive, who has since died. |
Planning departments hit hardest by staff shortages
14/10/2024 Planning departments are facing the worst workforce shortages, with eight out of 10 experiencing recruitment and retention issues, new research has revealed. |
Union threatens strike action after pay award decision
27/09/2024 Local authority leaders in Scotland have decided to impose a wage rise prompting UNISON to threaten strike action. |
CCTV operators in Hounslow call off pay strike
10/09/2024 Strikes by London borough of Hounslow CCTV operators employed by NSL have ended after a deal for the workers’ outstanding 2023 pay claim was reached. |
Social care wage rise call
09/09/2024 Unions have called for wages to rise in social care to resolve the ‘recruitment crisis'. |
Unite ‘overwhelmingly’ backs COSLA pay offer
05/09/2024 Unite members have voted to accept the revised pay offer from local government employers in Scotland. |
Stark inequalities leave women in north with ‘heavy burdens’
04/09/2024 Women in the North of England are more likely to be an unpaid carer than women in other regions of England, a new report on regional inequalities has revealed. |
Councils draining ‘dwindling’ reserves to stay afloat
04/09/2024 Three in five (60%) city leaders have warned they will have to draw on already depleted financial reserves this year to ‘stay financially afloat.’ |
Unison starts balloting staff on strikes
03/09/2024 More than 360,000 council and school support staff across England and Wales will begin voting today on whether to take industrial action over pay. |
Union rejects latest COSLA pay offer
03/09/2024 Members of Scotland’s largest trade union have voted overwhelmingly to reject the latest pay offer from local government employers. |
Council staff face ‘hardship’ as they wait months for pensions
02/09/2024 Former council workers in the West Midlands are waiting months to receive their pensions after retiring, creating ‘huge hardship issues’, trade unions and a council have warned. |
Scottish Government asks councils to divert funds to cover pay deal
28/08/2024 The Scottish Government has asked councils to divert funds from a Nature Restoration Fund to help them meet the revised local authority pay deal. |
Birmingham slated over pay cut plans
16/08/2024 A union has slammed cash-strapped Birmingham City Council over plans to cut the salaries of refuse workers. |
Union submits first tranche of equal pay claims
14/08/2024 Trade union GMB has lodged the first tranche of 400 legal equal pay claims against Brighton and Hove City Council. |
Council worker pay strike suspended
13/08/2024 A strike over pay that was set to hit Scotland this week has been suspended after council leaders made a new offer. |
COSLA makes improved pay offer
12/08/2024 Councils have made an improved pay offer to staff in a bid to avert strike action across Scotland. |
Staff stage fresh strike over pay
09/08/2024 Staff in social care teams across Lancashire have walked out today in their second bout of strike action over pay this year. |
Labour reaffirms commitment to National Care Service
07/08/2024 Care minister Stephen Kinnock has reaffirmed Labour's commitment to a National Care Service. |
Bin strikes threaten ‘significant disruption’ during Edinburgh Fringe
31/07/2024 Edinburgh CC has urged COSLA, unions and the Scottish Government to resolve the pay dispute to ‘prevent significant disruption’ during Edinburgh Fringe. |
Fixing care’s recruitment and retention issue
31/07/2024 Ben Weatherall, co-founder and director of Curam, looks at what local authorities can do to fix the care sector’s recruitment and retention issue. |
Council support staff declare strike over salary grades
26/07/2024 Around 200 support staff in Lancashire County Council’s social work team today began strike action in a dispute over salary grades and working arrangements. |
Unions threaten ‘stinking’ summer after rejecting pay offer
22/07/2024 Residents in Scotland will be faced with a ‘stinking Scottish summer’ unless local government employers improve their pay offer to workers, union says. |
COSLA offers 3.2% pay uplift
18/07/2024 Local government employers in Scotland have made a new pay offer in an effort to resolve the ongoing pay dispute. |
Public sector productivity hampered by payroll and HR software limitations
18/07/2024 Nearly half of all public sector organisations across the UK and Ireland are wrangling with payroll and HR systems that are not fit for purpose. |
Care sector needs 540,000 workers by 2040
18/07/2024 The care sector will need 540,000 additional social care posts by 2040 to cope with the aging population, care workforce body Skills for Care estimates. |
King's Speech: Waiting lists, prevention and mental health top health agenda
17/07/2024 Reducing waiting times, prevention and improving mental health provision topped Labour's agenda in today's King's Speech but there were no social care reforms. |
Four-day working win
16/07/2024 Cllr Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambs DC, reflects on the results of the council’s four-day week trial and calls on Labour to back the shorter week. |
Councils stuck in social care and hospital ‘doom loop’
16/07/2024 Over-stretched councils are struggling to meet the increasingly complex social care needs of people being discharged from hospital, a new survey has revealed. |
Unite members ‘overwhelmingly’ reject pay offer
12/07/2024 A substantial majority of Unite members have voted to reject the latest local government pay offer. |
GMB accepts local government pay offer
12/07/2024 The GMB has split the union response on sector pay after coming out in support of the offer from employers for this year. |
South Cambs’ four-day week trial shows ‘positive’ results
08/07/2024 A report into South Cambridgeshire DC’s controversial four-day week trial found the majority of key performance indicators had improved or remained the same. |
Bin strikes could hit Edinburgh Fringe Festival, union says
02/07/2024 Waste and recycling workers in Scotland have voted to go on strike during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of an ongoing pay dispute. |
School staff strike over new pay structure
27/06/2024 Teaching assistants at a school in East Yorkshire have walked out amid a dispute with the council over pay and conditions. |
Refuse workers’ strike escalates
26/06/2024 Refuse workers in the London Borough of Redbridge are to escalate their industrial dispute with a ban on overtime working, trade union Unite has announced. |
UNISON: Over 90% of council workers reject pay offer
17/06/2024 Thousands of council workers in Scotland have voted overwhelmingly to reject a pay offer from local government employers. |
UNISON: To whoever forms the next government…
14/06/2024 Christina McAnea, general secretary of UNISON, tells LocalGov.co.uk what the sector’s biggest union hopes to see from the next government. |
Council workers strike over pay cuts
11/06/2024 Nearly 150 council employees in Greenwich are striking this week over the local authority’s plans to reduce their pay. |
Unite warns of strike action in escalating pay dispute
29/05/2024 Unite has served industrial action notices to 29 councils in the escalating pay dispute between local government employers and employees in Scotland. |
South Yorkshire mayor could receive £30k pay boost
29/05/2024 The mayor of South Yorkshire could be in line for a pay rise of nearly £30,000. |
Council workers’ incomes ‘cut to the bone’, warns union
29/05/2024 Unite has recommended its members reject the latest local government pay offer for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. |
Greenwich council repairs staff declare strike
28/05/2024 Nearly 150 workers employed by Greenwich council will go on strike today after the local authority brought in plans to cut their wages. |
COSLA makes 2.2% pay offer
24/05/2024 Local authority employees in Scotland have been offered a 2.2% pay increase from 1 April. |
Union recommends council staff reject pay offer
23/05/2024 Unison has advised local authority employees to reject an offer of a pay increase of at least £1,290. |
Council employees offered 5.8% pay rise
16/05/2024 Council employees have been offered a pay increase of at least £1,290, which equates to a 5.8% rise for the lowest paid. |
UNISON: Council employers ‘miles away’ from acceptable pay offer
13/05/2024 Local authority workers in Scotland are considering strike action because ‘employers are miles away from offering anything staff are likely to accept’. |
Oracle project costs soar from £3m to £40m
09/05/2024 The budget for replacing an IT system with Oracle has ballooned from £2.6m to almost £40m, councillors in West Sussex have heard. |
Wages below 2008 levels in two thirds of council areas
29/04/2024 Real wages are still below 2008 levels in nearly two-thirds of UK local authority areas, a new TUC analysis has revealed. |
Unison warns of looming strike as it awaits pay offer
22/04/2024 Scotland’s largest local government union has warned that strike preparations could begin next week amid growing tensions over pay. |
Government urged to fund council pay claim
22/04/2024 Forest of Dean District Council has called on ministers to fully fund trade unions’ pay claim for local government workers. |
Campaigners publish council ‘rich list’
09/04/2024 Campaign group TaxPayers’ Alliance has published its annual ‘town hall rich list’ today as it continues to raise the issue of public sector pay. |
EXCLUSIVE: No pay offer until after local elections
14/03/2024 Local government employers will not make a pay offer until after the upcoming local elections in May, The MJ understands. |
Unions call for 10% wage hike
04/03/2024 A 10% wage rise is the ‘only way to maintain the staff levels necessary to deliver services’, Unison, Unite and GMB say. |
Surrey apologises for £30m payroll problem
01/03/2024 Surrey County Council has apologised after a problem with their new £30m payroll system left staff out of pocket. |
Future of four-day week in limbo
21/02/2024 South Cambridgeshire councillors have been advised to continue the authority’s four-day week trial until the Government offers more detail on plans to ‘disincentivise’ the practice. |
Chiefs: Sector can afford senior pay hike
20/02/2024 Council chiefs have insisted their pay settlement must match the award for local government staff after years in which senior wage rises have fallen behind. |
Rayner floats three-year pay deal
14/02/2024 An incoming Labour Government could throw its weight behind a longer-term pay deal for the sector to avoid the embarrassment of strikes, well-placed sources have suggested. |
Birmingham councillors back 18% pay rise delay
08/02/2024 Councillors at cash-strapped Birmingham City Council have voted to delay pay increases for members. |
Council set to halve sick pay
26/01/2024 Southend Council is planning to halve the amount of sick pay given to staff in a move Unison has described as ‘callous’. |
Fitness instructors flex muscles in pay dispute
25/01/2024 Council-employed yoga, aerobics and Pilates instructors in Colchester are voting on strike action after nearly a decade without a pay rise, says Unison. |
Council denied injunction to stop bin strikes
04/12/2023 Warrington Borough Council has lost a High Court bid to stop its refuse workers going out on strike. |
Unions plan for January pay claim
30/11/2023 Local government trade unions are aiming to submit their next one-year pay claim in January, The MJ understands. |
Unison members accept ‘long overdue’ pay offer
27/11/2023 Council chiefs in Scotland have welcomed a decision by Unison members to accept the latest offer in a long running pay dispute. |
New offer in pay dispute
03/11/2023 More money has been offered in the hope of averting strike action by Scottish Unison members. |
South Cambs issued Best Value notice over four-day week
03/11/2023 The Government has issued a non-statutory Best Value notice to South Cambridgeshire District Council ‘following concerns about its trial of a four-day working week’. |
Council chiefs to receive 3.5% pay increase
02/11/2023 Local authority chief executives will receive a 3.5% salary increase backdated to the beginning of April after agreement was reached on this year’s pay award. |
School staff strike amid pay dispute
01/11/2023 Schools in parts of Scotland were closed on Wednesday as non-teaching staff went on strike in an ongoing dispute over local government pay. |
Four-day week trial continues despite DLUHC guidance
31/10/2023 South Cambridgeshire will continue its four-day week trial after new government guidance said councils employing the practice should ‘cease immediately’. |
DLUHC advises councils on four-day week
26/10/2023 The Government has issued guidance for English councils on four-day weeks and said it is exploring other measures ‘to ensure the sector is clear’ that the practice should not be pursued. |
Unison rejects Scotland’s 10% pay offer
16/10/2023 Unison members in Scotland today rejected local government employers’ latest pay deal, which would have seen the lowest-paid staff receive a 10% wage boost. |
Haringey housing staff to strike
10/10/2023 Housing repair workers employed by Haringey Council will strike this winter in a dispute over pay. |
Social care should be top of manifestos, forum says
28/09/2023 Adult social care reform should be prioritised on the agendas of all political parties, the National Care Forum (NCF) has said. |
EXCLUSIVE: Unions delay next steps discussion
27/09/2023 Trade unions have agreed to reconvene to discuss their next steps on the ongoing pay dispute within days of GMB’s strike ballots closing, The MJ understands. |
