VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
Welsh councils prepare to transform community spaces
12/05/2025 Nine councils in Wales are due to receive £31.5m to support ongoing development projects in local towns and communities. |
Welsh council tax rise of 7.2%
14/04/2025 Local authorities in Wales are raising council tax by an average of 7.2% in 2025/26 - the second largest rise for more than 20 years. |
Local transport in Wales gets £110m boost
11/04/2025 The Welsh Government has announced an investment of £110m to boost local transport. |
Bus franchising no ‘panacea’, warn Welsh council chiefs
31/03/2025 Council chiefs in Wales have welcomed plans to transform the way local bus services are planned and delivered but cautioned that its rollout will take time. |
Funding floor for Welsh councils
24/02/2025 Councils in Wales are to see an average funding increase of 4.3%, following the announcement of the Welsh Government's Budget. |
Pembrokeshire could lose 68 councillors
30/01/2025 The number of town and community councillors in Pembrokeshire could be cut by 10% following a review by Wales’ Democracy and Boundary Commission. |
Edinburgh tourism tax could be starting point for fiscal devolution, experts suggest
20/01/2025 The approach to a tourism tax being taken forward in Scottish and Welsh cities could be a starting point for fiscal devolution in England, experts suggest. |
Local Welsh treasures receive £2m boost
24/12/2024 Over £2m will be awarded to seven local places in Wales including music venues and community and leisure centres. |
4.3% boost for Welsh councils
12/12/2024 Councils will receive £6.1bn from the Welsh Government to spend on delivering key services, increasing core revenue funding by 4.3% next year, ministers have announced. |
Welsh councils 'financially unsustainable' without action
04/12/2024 ‘Significant’ risks facing Welsh councils’ finances are likely to increase unless action is taken, a public sector watchdog has warned. |
Wales introduces tourism tax Bill
27/11/2024 A Bill that would allow councils to introduce a levy on overnight stays has been introduced in Wales this week. |
Welsh councils plead to plug growing gap
11/11/2024 An umbrella body is pushing for the Welsh Government to help plug a £559m funding gap so councils do not have to make ‘impossible decisions’. |
Auditor uncovers £7m of fraud and errors
23/10/2024 More than £7m worth of fraud and payment errors have been identified in Wales in a counter-fraud initiative, according to Audit Wales. |
Council leader quits over paedophile headteacher row
18/10/2024 The leader of Gwynedd Council has stood down after a row over his initial failure to apologise to the victims of a convicted paedophile headteacher. |
Welsh councils face £559m budget gap
10/10/2024 Councils across Wales face ‘extraordinary’ budget pressures totalling an estimated £559m next year, according to the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA). |
More than £2m needed to sort Welsh recycling scheme
30/09/2024 Senior Denbighshire CC members will be asked to plough more than £2m into a recycling scheme that has led to ‘unacceptable' numbers of missed collections. |
New Flintshire leader issues bankruptcy warning
26/09/2024 The new leader of Flintshire County Council has warned the local authority could be forced to declare effective bankruptcy. |
Welsh council chiefs call for end to social care ‘quick fixes’
24/09/2024 Local authority leaders in Wales have called on the Welsh Government to invest more in social care to ease the pressure on the NHS this winter. |
Welsh councils face 'challenging' 20mph decisions
20/09/2024 Welsh authorities face ‘challenging decisions’ as they review requests for some roads to be exempt from the 20mph default speed limit, council leaders say. |
Welsh council cuts free transport to English-language schools
20/09/2024 A Welsh council has made broad cuts to its school transport provision – with some only affecting children taught in English. |
Wales ‘a long way’ from active travel aims
19/09/2024 The Welsh Government is a long way from achieving the step-change in active travel it set out more than a decade ago, a spending watchdog has found. |
New homes should be for Welsh speakers, council says
06/09/2024 A community council in Wales has objected to plans for a new affordable housing development amid fears of a decline in non-Welsh speakers. |
Significant funding needed for Wales to ‘get close’ to housing pledge
05/09/2024 The Welsh Government is unlikely to deliver on a pledge to build 20,000 low-carbon social homes for rent by 2026, according to a spending watchdog. |
Audit Wales tells councils to improve performance information
30/07/2024 Councils in Wales are not giving enough information to leaders about what their communities think of their services, a public sector watchdog has found. |
Welsh Government drops controversial council tax notice plan
10/07/2024 The Welsh Government has dropped its controversial plan to end the legal requirement to publish council tax notices in local newspapers. |
Labour could bring in automatic voter registration
27/06/2024 It has been reported that Labour plans to introduce automatic voter registration (AVR) if elected next week. |
Thousands of bins missed as council rolls out new service
19/06/2024 Denbighshire County Council has apologised after waste from thousands of households was not collected as a new recycling service was rolled out. |
Welsh editors in warning over council tax notice law
11/06/2024 Editors in Wales have issued a warning over the Welsh Government’s plans to stop council tax notices being published in local newspapers. |
Pembrokeshire buys housing stock worth £3.5m
21/05/2024 Pembrokeshire County Council has spent more than £3.5m acquiring housing since November. |
Wales pushes back council tax reform
15/05/2024 Council tax reforms will not come into force until 2028, the Welsh Government has announced. |
New centre to protect Welsh councils from cyber attacks
13/05/2024 The Welsh Government has established a security operations centre (SOC) dedicated to protecting local authorities from cyber attacks. |
Re-elected Burnham calls for Right to Buy suspension powers
07/05/2024 Greater Manchester’s re-elected mayor has called for powers to suspend Right to Buy on new homes under plans to build 10,000 houses across the region. |
Wales to ‘correct’ guidance on 20mph speed limits
22/04/2024 The Welsh Government will change its guidance on 20mph speed limits, the transport minister has said. |
Welsh council tax rises finalised
13/03/2024 The average council tax rise for Welsh local authorities will be just over 8% next year. |
Regulator calls for 'substantial' planning intervention
26/02/2024 The planning system requires ‘substantial intervention’ by the Government to ensure consistent delivery of new homes, a major study has concluded. |
Wales could drive agenda on council tax, report argues
12/02/2024 Wales could have a chance to deal with unfairness in the council tax system and drive the agenda for other nations and regions to follow, says think-tank. |
Pembrokeshire council proposes record 21% council tax hike
08/02/2024 Pembrokeshire County Council has proposed the highest ever percentage increase in council tax in Wales. |
Welsh government announces £25m for councils
07/02/2024 The Welsh government has announced an additional £25m to support cash-strapped local authorities in 2024-25. |
Call for ‘different approach’ to brownfield
24/01/2024 A more ‘systematic, interventionist and collaborative’ method could ‘significantly’ increase the regeneration of brownfield sites in Wales, according to a new report. |
Welsh councils commit to improving benefits system
22/01/2024 All local authorities in Wales have signed up to a new charter, committing to work with the Welsh Government to develop a consistent benefits system. |
Welsh minister backs tax reforms
03/01/2024 One of the candidates to become first minister of Wales has backed reform of council tax. |
‘Very difficult year ahead’ for Welsh councils
19/12/2023 Council bosses say local authorities in Wales face a 'considerable' funding gap despite the devolved nation’s planned cuts in other departments to protect local services. |
Wales passes workplace recycling law
08/12/2023 New Workplace Recycling Regulations have been passed in Wales, which will require all businesses to separate recyclable materials. |
Wales consults on council tax reform
14/11/2023 The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on redesigning the country's council tax system. |
Councils sign cross border partnership
13/11/2023 Two English councils, Herefordshire and Shropshire, and two Welsh county councils, Monmouthshire and Powys, have signed a partnership agreement. |
How AI surveys show councils need a new approach on litter
31/10/2023 Gavin Ellis, co-founder and director of Hubbub, discusses how litter survey projects on Glasgow and Cardiff roads suggest that a new approach is needed by local authorities. |
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. |
Extra cash for Welsh social care in emergency spending revisions
17/10/2023 Council budgets will remain largely unchanged, but there should be more cash for social services, following the Welsh Government’s emergency public spending revisions. |
Welsh government urged to improve diversity in local politics
17/10/2023 Women, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities are under-represented in Welsh local government, according to a new Senedd committee report. |
Home Office ditches Stradey Park asylum plans
10/10/2023 The Home Office has withdrawn its controversial plans to house asylum seekers at the Stradey Park Hotel in Furnace, Llanelli. |
Care workers in Wales feel undervalued, poll reveals
05/10/2023 Social care workers in Wales feel undervalued by the public and underpaid for the work they do, a new survey has revealed. |
Wales to automatically register voters
03/10/2023 The Welsh Government is set to establish automatic voter registration for local government and Senedd elections. |
Welsh local services at ‘mortal risk’, council chiefs warn
15/09/2023 Local authority leaders in Wales have warned the UK Government that local services could be at ‘mortal risk’ if further funding was not forthcoming. |
Watchdog uncovers ‘weaknesses’ in councils’ workforce plans
12/09/2023 Weaknesses in Welsh councils’ workforce strategies could hamper their ability to deliver in the long term, Audit Wales has found. |
Welsh councils press for more housing support
11/09/2023 The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has called on the UK Government to prioritise housing and homelessness services. |
Wales to consider funding bids straddling English border
11/09/2023 Wales’ economy minister has said he would consider funding bids from a new council partnership that crosses the Welsh and English border. |
Audit reveals ‘deficiencies’ councils’ record keeping
07/09/2023 Auditors have found ‘significant deficiencies’ in the financial management and record keeping of Ammanford Town Council and Llanferres Community Council. |
EXCLUSIVE: Housing pressures may push councils into effective bankruptcy
04/09/2023 Rising housing pressures will force some councils to effectively declare bankruptcy, a local authority chief executive with more than 40 years of experience in the sector has warned. |
Weaknesses in Newport counter-fraud approach
17/08/2023 ‘Weaknesses’ have been found in Newport City Council’s approach to fraud, a finance watchdog has reported. |
Alarm over Welsh budget warnings
10/08/2023 The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has warned a return to austerity would be ‘devastating’ following budget warnings from the devolved Government. |
Pay dispute to stretch into autumn
07/08/2023 The local government pay dispute is destined to stretch into the autumn as trade union Unite warned ‘coordinated industrial action’ was ‘inevitable’. |
‘Real fears’ that post-Grenfell safety legislation won’t be delivered
31/07/2023 Auditor General for Wales has raised concerns over the devolved government’s implementation of building safety legislation that was created after Grenfell. |
Wales and Cornwall strengthen ties in new agreement
18/07/2023 The Welsh government and Cornwall Council have formed a ‘strategic alliance’ to strengthen their historical, cultural and linguistic ties. |
Cardiff Council leader calls for investigation into Ely collision
23/05/2023 The leader of Cardiff Council has called for an investigation into the events that led to the deaths of two teenagers and a riot on Monday night. |
'Widespread industrial action' warning
10/05/2023 Unite has warned the Scottish Government and employers there ‘could be widespread industrial action’ without a ‘significant increase’ to the current pay offer. |
Welsh village opposes plans to house refugees in hotel
09/05/2023 Villagers in Wales have vowed to fight plans for 400 asylum seekers to be lodged in a former hotel. |
Welsh Government to detail council tax reform later this year
03/05/2023 The Welsh Government has revealed it will announce details of its council tax reforms later this year. |
Pavement parking ban parked after 'frustratingly slow' jibe
04/04/2023 The Welsh Government has shelved a consultation on banning pavement parking after councils apparently claimed they were too busy to engage with it. |
Welsh council chiefs welcome free school meal extension
10/03/2023 Councils in Wales have welcomed the Welsh government’s announcement that free school meals will continue for children from lower income families over holidays. |
Digitisation must not lead to ‘two-tier society’, auditor says
09/03/2023 Spending on internet infrastructure must be balanced with measures to prevent creating a two-tier society when it comes to services, Welsh government says. |
Welsh councils need to encourage resilience, auditors say
24/01/2023 Local authorities in Wales must do more to encourage and grow community resilience against a backdrop of cuts, auditors have said. |
Watchdog raises safeguarding concerns at Powys
20/12/2022 A watchdog has taken Powys CC to task over the lack of ‘control’ of its safeguarding arrangements. |
Auditors warn of workforce shortages in flooding sector
15/12/2022 Local areas in Wales are facing a shortage of workers with experience in dealing with the impact of floods, auditors say. |
‘Difficult decisions’ ahead despite £400m settlement boost
14/12/2022 Councils in Wales have warned ‘difficult decisions’ on spending remain despite receiving an 8% increase in funding from the Welsh government. |
Labour outlines huge devolution push
05/12/2022 Labour proposes removing ‘dead hand of centralisation’ by devolving to local government wide-ranging powers over employment, growth, transport and education. |
Welsh councils urged to engage more with social enterprises
01/12/2022 Local authorities in Wales should do more to ‘maximise the impact’ of social enterprises in their areas, auditors say. |
Interim chief given role permanently
23/11/2022 Swansea City & CC has appointed its interim chief executive on a permanent basis. |
20mph speed limit could save £100m in first year, research finds
07/11/2022 A 20mph speed limit across Wales could save £100m in the first year due to a reduction in deaths and injuries, new research has found. |
Welsh councils struggle to tackle poverty
01/11/2022 Local authorities in Wales are struggling to tackle poverty because of a wide variety of approaches and a ‘complicated partnership landscape’, auditors find. |
Welsh digital and green sector gets £3m boost
17/10/2022 The Welsh government has announced a £3m boost to help support the development of skills in the digital and green sector. |
Workload warning over voting pilots
11/10/2022 Proposals to introduce automatic voter registration in Wales could cause confusion and add to already heavy workloads, election officers have warned. |
Welsh councils warn of 'serious harm' to budgets
03/10/2022 Welsh local authority leaders have warned the Government that market turmoil is causing ‘serious harm’ to council budgets. |
The future of EV charging in Wales: Making experience count
26/08/2022 Anne Buckingham explains how SWARCO Smart Charging is helping councils across Wales install the right infrastructure. |
Council defrauded of nearly £240,000 due to failure of financial checks
17/08/2022 Poor governance and financial management left Maesteg Town Council vulnerable to a fraud that cost nearly a quarter of a million pounds, auditors say. |
Traveller communities in Wales face ‘widespread racism’
11/08/2022 Members of the Senedd have called on councils to take ‘action’ to provide sites for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities who face widespread prejudice. |
Welsh councils get £1.85m to clean up chewing gum
08/08/2022 Five local authorities in Wales are to receive a funding boost in order to help them remove used chewing gum from their streets. |
Neath Port Talbot leisure services moving ‘in-house’
02/08/2022 Leisure services in Neath Port Talbot are set to be brought back in-house next year, local authority says. |
Call to simplify devolved-benefits in Wales
28/07/2022 A new report has called on the Welsh Government to simplify the benefit system to help more people during the cost of living crisis. |
‘Significant flaw’ in UK Shared Prosperity Fund
18/07/2022 Welsh councils with large populations could lose out on tens of millions of pounds from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), new analysis has concluded. |
Welsh parliament votes for 20mph default
13/07/2022 The Welsh Senedd has approved legislation to lower the default national speed limit on residential roads and busy pedestrian streets in the country from 30mph to 20mph. |
Council tax revaluation announced for Wales
11/07/2022 The Welsh Government has announced it will revalue all 1.5 million properties in the country under bold plans to modernise the council tax system. |
Welsh councils to get new powers over second homes
05/07/2022 Welsh councils will be given new powers to limit the number of second homes in their community under plans revealed by the First Minister. |
Welsh bus industry receives £48m boost
29/06/2022 The bus industry in Wales is set to receive £48m to help it recover from the pandemic and cope with the financial challenges, Welsh government announces. |
Welsh government launches £20m care leavers pilot
28/06/2022 The Welsh government today launched a pilot scheme that will see care leavers receive £1,600 per month to support their transition into adult life. |
Welsh councils launch new armed forces status
27/06/2022 Schools in Wales that go the extra mile to support service children are to be recognised by a new status awarded by their local authority, WLGA announces. |
Universal free school meals in Wales to start from September
20/06/2022 Every primary school pupil in Wales will receive a free school meal by 2024, the Welsh Government has confirmed. |
Welsh auditors: NHS waiting lists could take seven years to clear
31/05/2022 It could be seven years before Wales sees its NHS waiting lists come back down to pre-pandemic levels, Welsh Auditors have claimed. |
First Welsh council joins digital Local Land Charges register
19/05/2022 Swansea has become the first Welsh local authority to move its local land charges to a digital register. |
Gender equality campaigners in Wales warn of ‘glacial’ progress
25/04/2022 Councils have been urged to increase the number of women in local politics as campaigners warn Welsh local democracy won’t see gender equality until 2050. |
Welsh councils to receive £1.1m to become Age Friendly
20/04/2022 Local authorities in Wales will have access to £1.1m funding to help the country become Age Friendly. |
