Small Scale, Big Potential: Town and parish councils and devolution
Parish and town councils could play a central role in making devolution work for communities.
Concerns over Whitehall delay to grooming plea
31/03/2026 Home Affairs Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley has raised concerns over Whitehall delays in demanding councils preserve records related to grooming gangs. |
Shadow minister warns devolution Bill will 'die' without talks
23/03/2026 Opposition politicians have warned the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill will fall unless the Government listens to their concerns. |
Councils fail to collect quarter of rogue landlord fines
06/03/2026 Councils have collected just a quarter of the total fines issued to rogue landlords, data has shown. |
Havering urges Government to scrap loan interest
05/03/2026 Havering LBC is lobbying the Government to scrap the interest payments on its loans. |
Government to 'look again' at election postponement powers
27/02/2026 The Government will ‘look again’ at the secretary of state’s powers after peers launched an attempt to rein in ministerial control over cancelling elections. |
LGA to look into scale of £100k salary sign off burden
26/02/2026 The Local Government Association (LGA) is to look into the scale of the burden of members having to sign off salary packages worth more than £100,000. |
EXCLUSIVE: Pay spine review kicks off
26/02/2026 Work has started on a review of the national pay scale used to determine salaries for most council employees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. |
Exceptional Financial Support increases
24/02/2026 Some 37 local authorities will be issued with £1.9bn in exceptional financial support (EFS), allowing them to use capital funding to cover day-to-day costs. |
CIPFA warning over profit capping reforms
23/02/2026 Financial oversight and profit capping reforms to the children's residential care market may fail to reduce costs for local authorities, CIPFA has warned. |
EXCLUSIVE: Lambeth service redesign after senior restructure
16/02/2026 Lambeth LBC is embarking of a ‘service redesign across the whole organisation’. |
Council appeals tribunal verdict
12/02/2026 City of York Council has submitted a formal appeal after an employment tribunal ordered the authority to pay out £10,500 to a former top director. |
EXCLUSIVE: LGA cyber insurance talks 'peter out'
11/02/2026 The Local Government Association (LGA) is not currently taking forward a proposal for a cyber attack insurance scheme, it has confirmed. |
EXCLUSIVE: £1.6m bill for intervention support
10/02/2026 Councils under Government intervention have shelled out more than £1.6m on staff and consultants to support their commissioners and envoys, The MJ can reveal. |
Reform UK budget defeated
09/02/2026 A budget proposing a 3.89% council tax increase by Warwickshire CC's minority Reform UK administration has been defeated by rival parties. |
City council requests £15m exceptional financial support
06/02/2026 Brighton & Hove City Council has requested £15m of exceptional financial support (EFS) from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. |
Cross-party talks after Bedford budget rejected
05/02/2026 The leader of Bedford BC's Conservative minority administration has pledged to ‘keep working with other parties' after its ‘sound' budget was rejected. |
Epsom & Ewell mulls suing leisure operator
21/01/2026 Epsom & Ewell BC has ‘retained legal expert support' as it considers suing the former operator of a leisure centre handed over needing repairs. |
Reed hails housing starts increase
16/01/2026 The number of new build starts in the year ending September 2025 has increased by 18% compared to the previous year. |
Cotton piles pressure on West Midlands Police chief to stand down
15/01/2026 Birmingham City Council’s Labour leader John Cotton has called for the chief constable of West Midlands Police, Craig Guildford, to stand down. |
DCN name change pressure
13/01/2026 The District Councils’ Network (DCN) is coming under increasing internal pressure to move quickly to change its name to secure the future relevance of the organisation. |
