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’s ‘financial resilience’ in question
07/10/2024 The ‘financial resilience’ of Windsor and Maidenhead is in question after the Cabinet heard this year's forecast overspend had risen from £9.9m to £12.4m. |
Dudley forced into reserves raid
26/09/2024 Dudley MBC has ‘little scope to meet unexpected pressures', senior councillors have been told. |
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.’ |
Sheffield faces £34m overspend
27/08/2024 Sheffield City Council is set to overspend by £34.3m this year amid ‘significant’ financial challenges, a report has revealed. |
Auditors concerned by slow transformation
27/03/2024 Scotland’s Accounts Commission is ‘extremely concerned’ by slow transformation at Moray Council, which faces a £31m deficit despite years of warnings. |
40% of councils face ‘financial failure’
15/01/2024 Two in five councils in England could see their reserves drop to less than 5% of their net revenue expenditure within the next five years, new study finds. |
Welsh councils face £750m shortfall
25/10/2023 Local government finances in Wales are on an ‘unsustainable path’, according to a report from Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre. |
DCN in cuts warning
24/10/2023 Cultural services, community support and parks and green spaces are all at risk of cuts without a boost to the local government finance settlement, respondents to a District Councils’ Network (DCN) survey have warned. |
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. |
Nine councils in section 114 warning
25/08/2023 Nine councils within the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma) have warned they could issue a section 114 notice by 2025. |
Reserves 'critical' at Middlesbrough
16/08/2023 ‘Critically low’ levels of reserves have left Middlesbrough Council in danger of issuing a section 114 notice. |
BCP Council in bankruptcy warning
14/08/2023 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council has warned tough budget decisions are needed if the council is to avoid bankruptcy. |
Council urged to address low reserves
12/06/2023 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. |
EXCLUSIVE: ‘It’s time for a new Audit Commission’
12/04/2023 An ex-senior mandarin has today called for a new Audit Commission as The MJ reveals the draft metrics the Government is considering for its new watchdog. |
Reserves grow to £31bn, resilience index reveals
21/12/2022 The 2022 edition of CIPFA’s Resilience Index reveals that councils’ reserves have grown to £31bn, up from £29bn in 2020/21. |
One in six councils at risk of running out of money next year
06/10/2022 One in six councils in England could run out of money as early as next year without further budget cuts or additional income, new research has warned today. |
Council reserves grow by £10bn in past year
02/02/2022 The amount held in local authority reserves in England has increased to £29bn this year from £19bn in 2019/20, the latest figures shows. |
LEP 'at risk' over funding uncertainty
08/11/2021 The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership has warned it has reached 'crisis point' after only receiving half the funds promised from the Government so far this year. |
Powys' savings off target
01/11/2021 Powys CC’s savings plans are 22% off target more than halfway through the financial year, senior councillors have been warned. |
Sunak urged to tackle backlogs in public services or face greater costs
19/10/2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak must swiftly invest in public services hit hardest by the pandemic or face much greater costs down the line, a report has warned. |
‘Wholesale improvements’ required at Slough
10/05/2021 External auditors have issued a scathing report on financial management at Slough BC. |
Lambeth to reimburse £27m of water bills
06/05/2021 The decision follows years of legal wrangling over charges collected on behalf of Thames Water. |
Over half of councils face financial failure without spending review funding increase
23/11/2020 Half of English councils will be at risk of financial failure if the spending review just provides a ‘rollover’ of funding levels from this year for 2021/22, new analysis has warned today. |
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Councils facing £2bn budget black hole
18/08/2020 Councils face a budget black hole of £2bn this year due to unfunded coronavirus costs, a new study has found. |
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Eight in ten councils can't meet Covid-19 costs, report warns
24/06/2020 More than eight out of ten upper tier councils in England do not have enough money to cover the extra costs and reduced income caused by coronavirus, a report has warned today. |
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IFS urges government to relax the rules on council finance amid crisis
22/06/2020 Finance experts have called on the Government to temporarily relax rules that prevent councils borrowing to cover day-to-day spending as they deal with the coronavirus crisis. |
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Combined authority 'spending reserves like it's going out of fashion'
17/06/2020 Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s chief executive has expressed doubts about whether his region would be able to cope with a second wave of coronavirus infections. |
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CIPFA resilience index shows just 10% of councils are at financial risk
15/12/2019 The ‘majority of councils’ are not showing signs of major financial stress, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has claimed. |
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Council reserves increase by £2bn over past year
23/08/2019 Local authorities have been commended for ‘managing their finances well’ after new figures reveal that the sector’s reserve fund has increased by £2bn. |
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Reserves are not the answer
13/09/2018 Overall council reserve levels have seen a surprising increase in the past year, but this has not been felt evenly across the sector, says Paul Dossett. |
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Somerset confident it will not follow Northamptonshire into bankruptcy
21/05/2018 Somerset County Council faces 'a very challenging position' and could run out of money within a year unless it takes action, according to a financial review. |
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Crisis-hit county manages to balance its books
09/05/2018 Northamptonshire County Council has balanced the books for 2017/2018 and end the financial year without using all of its reserves. |
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Watchdog warns of 'serious concerns' over Clackmannanshire's finances
25/01/2018 Scotland's smallest mainland council must take ‘decisive action’ to find nearly £30m in savings over the next three years, auditors say. |
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Local government told to boost reserves
13/09/2017 Should councils ignore government pressure to trim down their cash reserves? Sam Clayden investigates. |
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Cash reserves unable to meet cost of voluntary mergers, warns CIPFA
13/04/2017 Councils will be unable to cover the costs of voluntary mergers in Wales using their reserves, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) has warned. |
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Scottish councils facing financial shortfalls warns watchdog
29/11/2016 Councils in Scotland have managed their finances well but face big challenges ahead, spending watchdogs have warned. |
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Thanet defends financial record despite ‘signicant risks’ from low reserves
18/11/2016 Thanet council defended ‘record of sound financial management’, despite budget report warning the council faces ‘signficant risks’ because of low reserves. |
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County warns its reserves will be gone in two years
27/09/2016 Lancashire County Council is not financially sustainable and would have spent all its reserves by 2018/19, a new report has warned. |
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Councils not using reserves should be ‘exposed’ says union
12/07/2016 Councils should be held accountable for their use of cash reserves and track how money is being utilised, according to trade union Unite. |
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Councils’ spending hits new low
06/07/2016 Councils’ spending in England will fall by 1% in 2016-17 (£0.9bn) according to official figures, raising concerns over the financial resilience of local authorities. |
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Councils to use £1.9bn from reserves to fund services
30/06/2016 Councils are planning to use £1.9bn of their cash reserves in the next financial year, according to official figures. |
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County to invest £10m in road surfacing project
20/05/2016 Suffolk County Council has agreed to use £10m from its reserves to fund three million square metres of new road surfacing. |
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Unison debate notion of ‘no-cuts budgets’
18/02/2016 A local government union has denied backing no-cuts budgets despite its members voting to use reserves and prudential borrowing to plug funding gaps. |
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Local government finance in a ‘mess’ warns survey
18/02/2016 Nearly nine in ten councils will have to increase council tax and start charging for services in a bid to balance the books, according to the results of a new survey. |
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Council chiefs lash out at ‘misleading’ reserves figure
19/11/2015 Reports that councils have more than £22bn in cash reserves have been slammed as ‘hugely misleading’ by council leaders. |
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Reserves already allocated for use by councils, shows survey
01/07/2015 The majority of councils have already earmarked their cash reserves for specific purposes, new research has revealed. |
